Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan once observed "Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication."
In reading Robin's post, the Benjamin essay and listening to Brendan's illuminating lecture, I was nudged towards examining the roles of both speed (velocity) and reproduction in modern art and electronic media. It seems apparent that what we've gained from the increased speed and reproductive capabilities of art and mass media is that we gain the benefits of instant information; produced and dispersed faster than ever. However, what we may have lost in all the speed and noise is a sense of contemplative space and time.
McLuhan also stated that "Electronic devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the public's need to know." Data mining and increased surveillance have been quite predictable byproducts of the digital, social Information Age. When Benjamin worries about the loss of aura and context in works of reproduced art he is also alluding to how art then can be perverted and subverted to serve other, more sinister means. I would bet that most of us in class had an inkling that social media sites like Facebook knew a lot about each of us on the level of individual consumers. However, I think that we greatly underestimated how much personal, private and political data they had harvested from each of us. One doesn't need to live in a totalitarian state to realize how dangerously imposing this is.
The problem is, with media being produced, dispersed and replicated at its current, mercurial speed are our collective critical thinking skills sharp and fast enough to catch it? One thing seems certain, it's not going to slow down any time soon. What seems Of paramount importance is contained in McLuhan's assertion, "All media works us over completely!"
Have you gone into your Facebook settings to check out how much Facebook really knows? In particular, they harvest information about your political views--something that's kind of gotten them into trouble lately. You can go in and there is a way to see how they've viewed your political affiliations based on the things you're interested in, like, share, or look at. For me, delving into that was very scary in how accurate and complex it was. Definitely something worth looking into!
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