<I realize the word “media educator” could sound nefarious. After all, isn’t advertising “media education” on how to be good consumers? Media educators teach media literacy, but I hate that term, because it implies that if we learned to understand media like books we would be smarter and better, and this is not true. I agree with Marshal McLuhan that current media is just an extension of the thought forms that were codified by the alphabet and printing press. So if people want to get pissed about the current state of media, consider how books have destroyed our communal way of thinking (because books make us silent, isolated experiencers of knowledge). I’m not anti-book, but all this media bashing is also not addressing the problem.> Antonio Lopez, Mediacology
o noes- not the big bad media!!!!!!! destroying our social relationships! destroying our children! destroying our lives! mass criticism of media/mediation would make a whole lot more sense if facebook functioned the same way as tv the same way as pr0nz. or even if each technology functioned the same way for an 80 year old emeritus professor using dial-up, a 16 year old high schooler in suburban us, and a 30 year old activist in egypt. but it doesn’t- and any criticism which fails to take these differences into account necessarily cannot account for the effects, both positive and negative, of technology and mediation.
the current rate of technological developments leave many people, understandably, confused. while discussing her experiences with education recently, a friend of mine ranted about the constant release of new gadgets that perform the same function, citing various apple products and data networks. she was unwilling to follow all the differences and felt overwhelmed by the surge of information. this is the same student that is taking intensive language courses in russian, her third language, while juggling a full schedule of courses and research work. there’s a bit of tension there- is a language really so different than an iPod? certainly they perform different functions, but both are human technologies capable of being used for communication, expression, and/or entertainment. it’s easy to grumble about technological overload- but no one really applied the same arguments or levels of skepticism towards more established technologies, such as writing or language.
i am not calling for such criticism- to the contrary, i love language and writing and a whole lot of other technologies. at the same time, i realize that no category as category has normative value. language is not all good or all bad. rather, there are parts of language which are completely lovely and other parts that are hurtful and offensive and still others that are infinitely mundane. the same goes writing, television, social networking, and porn. critical thought should account for nuances rather than rely on broad, vacuous labels. after all, what isn’t technology?
communalproperty 