Right from the beginning of Chapter Two: "Making New Media Make Sense", Baym addresses the fears that many of us have surrounding social media, as well as several dangers of social media that have given reason for this concern.
I've probably heard it from my mom the most: "you can't convey tone through texting!", and that's true. A lot is left unsaid through a quick written message. We have no body language, facial expressions, or vocal tone to work with. And with that, ample opportunity is left for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. I'm guessing that we've all been there, on one end of it or the other. We've all wondered about someone's cryptic "K". We've all wondered if maybe we should have added a quick "lol" at the end of that subtly snarky message to lighten things up a bit. That's because we all know how much is left to the imagination in these situations, and we try to make up for that in the ways that social media has taught us to.
And if we're not careful, there are consequences. We accidentally send someone a message intended for someone else, a photo they weren't meant to see, or a rant that should have never been put into writing. We publish what should have never been published. We allow ourselves to be tricked by the mask that social media can provide. We form impressions of people in our minds before we really know them. Or maybe, as Nick Carr wrote in his 2008 essay, we let these devices, networks, apps and sites "[make] us stupid", changing the way we see ourselves and others.
All this being said, it's important as media consumers that we learn to "make sense" of new media, as Baym argues throughout the chapter. The more we educate ourselves about the specific media, its potential consequences, and its possible effects on us, the better chance we have of fully understanding it and using it in a smart way.
I think in this digital age, we have no choice but to accept the alternative forms of communication that are put in front of us. We live in a world where people are scared to call someone on the phone or they are scared to go meet a person face to face. Unfortunately, that is the norm for most people. I think that while media and alternative forms of communication are good, we need to be able to master the "older" forms of communication before we rely to heavily on the new ones.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to the idea of not being able to convey proper tone through text. Tone is often misinterpreted through digital conversations and there have been some attempts to remedy this like emojis or "feeling..." on Facebook statuses but nothing has yet quite been able to effectively convey tone. However, I think it is easier to interpret tone after getting used to how a person talks in real life; eventually it is easy to read text messages in the voice of whoever sent the message, so this is another way that the virtual world can benefit from the real world.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this, especially being media studies majors.One classmate in my senior seminar class brought up today how we are educated in analyzing and understanding media, while a majority of people are not as educated in that topic. "Media literacy" is a coined term for a good reason, and it works hand in hand on how we interpret communication through different mediums such as texting and social media. So many face-to-face interaction elements are removed when the conversation is over text or through Facebook messaging. Granted there are so many opportunities from the new and alternative ways to communicate, but learning the new mediums and they change is incredibly important to how we communicate with one another and how it effects our relationships.
ReplyDeleteI think you said this so well. I think anyone who can text feels the same way as you. I always start a text with haha and if something is actually funny I make it hahaha. If I have something sarcastic or snarky to say I always put the lol at the end to make sure it isn't taken the wrong way. I can't tell you the number of fights I have gotten in or the amount of times I thought someone was mad at me and all situations just led back to a misinterpretation of tone in a text. I agree with you that educating ourselves about media will help us understand and use it better.
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