ARTS2090 Final Essay 3 - z3465185.files.wordpress.com · ARTS2090 Publics and Publishing Z3465185...
Transcript of ARTS2090 Final Essay 3 - z3465185.files.wordpress.com · ARTS2090 Publics and Publishing Z3465185...
ARTS2090 Publics and Publishing
Z3465185
Sarah Register
Final ‘Essay’ In Lieu of Exam
Word Count: 1,900
3. ‘The term communication can be defined in a wide sense and in a strict sense.
The wide sense is: a process by which a system is changed by another system’
(Vilém Flusser, writings Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press: p.8).
Distribution has arguably always been about communication systems that bring
other systems into contact. Which systems are today being brought into contact?
Which systems are changing other systems? What has changed, in comparison
to the past?
z3465185.wordpress.com
(State Library of Victoria Collections 1919, Easter Postcard Back and Message) Hand written letters to express one’s feelings. Connections across a paper. Scrawled and smudged intimately through passion. Sent across seas and oceans to communicate and express carefully selected words and exchange vulnerabilities.
(Stanford, C 2009, Ink Jar and Quills) Past expressions of emotions. Love. Passion. Thought. Care. Desires. Pick up the pen, put down your passion. Today’s textual communication has lost its meaning. Simplicity in communication allows for greater ability of expression.
(West L 2006, Letters) Letters from me to you. Letters from one friend to two. Letters show love and care. Letters will ware and tear. Our thoughts sent though the mail. Carried by winds and trails. They speak of days gone by. And adventures lived through the skies.
(Lion, W 2008, Fidelity and The Social Network) Since when did love lose sight. Fidelity is questioned in the night. When love connects us all. Why is it that we cannot stand tall. We search for our lover’s mistakes. Only to end up making ourselves break. Crushed by what we find We lose ourselves every time.
(Sugden 2010, No Mobile Phones) “Attention spans used to be robust; now they are stunted. Technology — MTV, the Internet, the iPhone — shriveled them,” (Heffernan 2010, n.p.). Attention, focus, distraction. Online commutation versus in-person interactions. The return of face-to-face communication.
Before language was developed, communication was still evident through
the use of sounds and pictorial expressions. Evidence of rock paintings exist
which express people’s once primitive and most primal thoughts. Before the
creation of language and the alphabet, people were able to communicate through
other means. Communication defines society and society defines
communication. How we use communication is increasingly diverse and has
adapted over time along with the development of new technologies. Distribution
of communication through new technologies has enabled multiple systems to
come into contact which may not have been able to in past times. Techonology
provides the links from social group to social group, enabling connections even
when not presently together.
Publication enables communication and relationships between areas
which may not have been possible beforehand. Publication is essentially
communication which is distributed throughout various systems and groupings.
Throughout history, communication has replicated various shifts in society and
speaks volumes about interactions within certain time periods. Sonnets, haikus,
ballads, riddles are all various forms of communication which enable an intimate
connection between individuals and were popular in specific time periods.
Arguably, these types of publications mirrored society’s desire for self-expression
and reflected cultural patterns at certain periods in time.
The plethora of publishing methods show how humans have an innate
desire to express themselves and convey meaning from one party to the next.
We crave intimacy and connection and this is enabled through communication.
Without it, one loses sanity. An example of this loss of emotional stability brought
about by loss of communication is cabin fever. The term cabin fever refers to
confinement indoors in the winter season. When people are confined to their
home for multiple days without connection and communication with the outside
world, mental abilities begin to diminish. Lacking communication with the outside
causes symptoms of insanity and this exemplifies the extent to which humans
require communication to sustain life.
Personally, I have experienced a similar type of cabin fever and loss of
emotional stability as my family lives overseas. I am alone and isolated in my
family home which can often trigger emotional instability and a craving for
communication with the outside world. When time zones differ, connections
between my family become limited. I find myself turning on the television as I
crave connection to the outside world. The familiar sounds of cooking shows and
morning news soothes my fear of isolation and allows me to connect with the
international networking system. I am able to visualise what is going on both
within my own community and respectively in other countries around the world.
Communication enables various systems to come into contact as it widens the
reach of information distribution. Distribution is no longer limited to the
constraints of what can fit within a post card. Worldviews can be brought into the
most intimate of locations within the household through international news. The
Internet facilitates linkages and exchanges between people who would not have
had the ability to interact in the past. It expands the possibility of communication
within communities past the human reach.
Consider the term communication, it stems from the Latin root
communicacio which means sharing or imparting. Sharing or imparting
information is the very goal of communication as individuals express their
thoughts and publish them in various formats. Talking, writing, singing, blogging,
Instagramming, Snapchatting, Facebooking and emailing all represent various
forms of communication. They enable expression across various platforms and
have changed how interactions within society take place.
As society has developed, so have the technologies that supplement
everyday communication. Woodblock printing, stencils, printing houses, printing
press, intaglio, lithography, colour printing, computers, laptops, smartphones and
thus the list goes on (History of Printing 2014). This list depicts a few of the
various changes in publication over time. These technologies have come about
because of the demand for newer communication methods. Some have been
successful and are still in use today whilst others have become outdated, left
behind in the times of the past.
Initially, with the creation of the printing press, people were able to mass-
produce and distribute information. They were able to connect the public system
to the most private and intimate locations in people’s homes. Information
distribution was radicalised as this gave the people greater freedom of
expression. However along with information distribution and idea sharing came a
change in communication. People relied less on verbal face-to-face
communications and became involved primarily in the expansion of written
materials. Today’s technologies have revolutionised communication and altered
the way we exchange information from system to system.
One prime example of the way technologies have altered communication
is through the world of online dating. Tinder, match.com, RSVP and eHarmony
are all websites whereby people can search for potential partners. They can
specify their dating preferences and their respective types. No longer do men
court women through letter writing and verbal expressions of sentiments. No,
today’s men rely on texting and tindering to court. They rely on short bursts of
communication which are relatively non-expressive. As online dating services
open up people to a greater range of potential partners, this reduces their desire
to commit. Millennials now feel less obligated to commit to one partner as they
have more choice than ever to connect with more people. Technologies have
altered the way both sexes participate within courtship. Arguably, women’s roles
within society have also been drastically altered though the ability to
communicate with the world at large. 2014’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala
Yousafzai was able to voice her concerns regarding women’s education via the
forum of social media. Without such distribution platforms, women’s struggles
with education would not have had a voice to speak.
Texting, Instagramming, Facebooking and Snapchatting have all changed
the way social interactions take place. Within social relationships, these various
platforms have to be considered as if entering into a binding agreement. Towards
the beginning of generation X, these technologies did not exist. Relationships
were not made “Facebook official” and couples communicated via phone call or
solely in person when they were able to arrange a face-to-face meet up. Today’s
generation of daters reply on immediate gratification and social validation to
substantiate their existence in the online social world. These technologies have
altered communication to such a degree that psychological disorders have even
been brought about through social media. Fear of Missing Out is a term which
refers to people’s fear of missing out on social interactions (Fear of Missing out
2014). This is brought about through watching others post to social media
accounts and thusly feelings of neglect and rejection arise. “The fear is especially
associated with modern technologies such as mobile phones and social
networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, which provide constant
opportunity for comparison of one's status,” (Fear of Missing Out 2014, n.p.).
Since the invention of the mobile phone, communication styles have
changed drastically. Now people are free to communicate anytime of day,
roughly anywhere in the world. There is increased reliance on virtual interactions
and face-to-face social interactions have diminished greatly. Not only that, but
with heightened usage of mobile technologies, people have become lazier.
Words have been shortened, slang terms have been created and emojis are
more used than ever to express one’s emotions. Worryingly, grammatical errors
are increasingly common and there is little regard for correct punctuation. This
has the potential to completely alter languages as Millennials feel less of a need
to understand grammatical rules and regulations. As English is the official
language for business and it is increasingly more popular for people in foreign
countries to learn English, this is resulting in a decline in foreign languages. In
order to prevent certain languages from disappearing completely, governments
have gone so far as to create official jobs to convert English words into their
respective languages. In France, the government is proactively trying to combat
the loss of language through the development of a department that changes
English words into French. These linguistic impacts have only arisen throughout
the last fifteen years as they have appeared after the introduction of the Internet
and communication technologies.
Facebook itself has successfully created one of the largest forums of
online distribution as it opens up connections between peoples across the globe.
Old friends can now find one another, people can post about their inner most
thoughts and feelings, businesses can exchange information with their
consumers and news can be distributed by topics currently trending. These
social systems in the past would not have had the same opportunity to come into
contact as they do today. Nowadays, our world has been altered dramatically by
the shift from in-person to online communication.
Along with more possibilities for communication, the amount of
distractions have also been heightened as people are continuously bombarded
with information. Constant advertisements connect businesses to consumers and
this enables direct contact between two entirely separate systems. The
middleman has been removed from the connection and this has promoted
continuous engagement with audiences. Along with the removal of the
middleman, other impacts can be seen in the business environment. “There's no
disputing the impact of digitised text on the whole culture of the codex; fewer
paper books are being sold, newspapers fold, bookshops continue to close,
libraries as well,” (Self 2014, n.p). America exemplifies this shift from in-store
purchases to online vendors. The novel industry is a prime example which
showcases how certain types of publications have almost become outdated due
to the role of new technologies within society. As soon as the eBook appeared,
purchases of regular paperback novels diminished astoundingly quickly, putting
Borders and other smaller bookstores completely out of business.
As technologies have developed overtime, communication has been
drastically impacted. Social and intimate relations have been changed and this
has been brought about by the endless options for communication. Entirely
separate worlds have been connected over the forum of the Internet as
distribution has been widened in reach. One must still wonder, have humans
adapted to technologies or have technologies been adapted to suit the human
need for communication?
Reference List
Fear Of Missing Out, Wikipedia, September 2014, accessed 30 October 2014, <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out>. Heffernan, V 2010, ‘The Attention Span Myth’, New York Times, accessed 29
October 2014, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21FOB-medium-t.html>.
History of Printing, Wikipedia, October 2014, accessed 29 October 2014,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing>. Lion, W 2008, Fidelity and The Social Network, Flickr Creative Commons,
accessed 30 October 2014, < https://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2710251000/in/photolist-58uKcw-dBTE6q-esUsR-e8cXHa-cz4jYf-6Sw79S-6Ss3QV-4sUHjK-c2TKUY-cL6my7-dAtELS-c2TKTu-6By5f9-o6zNQJ-8kVTT4-cduJLQ-4Vpwca-5W9biV-c56aFd-gRhGz5/>.
Self, W 2014, ‘The novel is dead (this time it's for real)’, The Guardian, Accessed
29 October 2014, <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/02/will-self-novel-dead-literary-fiction>.
Stanford, C 2009, Ink Jar and Quills, Flickr Creative Commons, accessed 29
October 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/84299143@N00/3922977291/in/photolist-6YEhtv-nRLQbw-oq4Nmi-7kB7xo-m4odeT-fDpPmm-oTR9L8-ccb3h5-9VLLGu-oGgVkn-oL2hJC-6NicJr-a81g8u-9VLLDQ-ccb33q-7tfC8B-pe3Cks-2uC4v-dKXEzS-fyzbXZ-c78JZb-6DJL4Q-cpCrom-ccb2Wy-brcn8T-egDnk4-3su9qW-5swsm8-jmYW3r-9G5NSm-4XtmSy-eiCJVj-eiCKFL-jmwiGy-97d8oU-djUYob-eixbvv-eiCKq3-fDoqpu-purhHq-dh3KzZ-eiCMGh-aCNHcM-ee81vN-dgj7B-ohxhmL-eix6CK-6RwQhk-poS6Rf-mCHvZq>.
State Library of Victoria Collections 1919, Easter Postcard Back and Message,
Flickr Creative Commons, accessed 29 October 2014, < https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofvictoria_collections/5579025982/in/photolist-d7oLa-5gi3xS-6jZQJA-aBJeER-6FzpHn-7CwPPk-5cz5PN-beqaTp-8G3Wcp-4H84RC-k3NNw6-ammQHL-f2Q6m-6EpzvX-fGFsZ-ozrUXD-673ApN-aSRbK4-9tge4t-a6SB3h-9tvATe-h6QZFa-cisdqw-gEVqpR-k3Rfi1-8b8S2g-5ack1D-6p5Ns4-beqb3t-7mwRAb-9Q7gaX-9XrMf2-7DtV8V-aC3o8q-4Crr1f-6Cg4P4-99ZHce-9uZY49-72Rx3w-387tJM-8otMef-8nUPTL-7BraZL-7BrbDA-7BrbjS-7RDgvz-342ZPc-8MsGS7-nUBdiT-7yqB72>.
Sugden, D 2010, No Mobile Phones, Flickr Creative Commons, accessed 1 November 2014, < https://www.flickr.com/photos/dsugden/4777699200/in/photolist-8hbXw9-8SXnr1-fF1gzr-8mGycA-7bMhFg-ji4JCs-dSUCBT-7ggGT2-fqr6gg-gZXyBW-dYhu5e-dYHi1e-RBBrq-nKxdjd-dxRJY-4896hs-dZAFek-5nAyDc-pfW9k9-edHTVF-nxujKC-e9pFBp-e99K3h-h6fpWf-f8fuz8-4ZAk72-igXXAi-hvDrez-pN1azX-gwLi3p-fERQ6S-iycWRi-fxzEj8-57YYqE-ef9ckw-cJGVPU-dPgJQ4-e1rnyN-e19nd9-dCueVh-gLbsrg-g2wpPG-fdVd5N-6XzhTC-jD8zVQ-gY5LRc-RBBso-n8y7FX-8v1WDR-e3Q4e8>.
West L 2006, Letters, Flickr Creative Commons, accessed 30 October 2014, <
https://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/234447967/in/photolist-mHBdk-3cqK5V-3qkjtv-68DAHN-sYMMN-8Vxjo1-3qpUW7-61nQq5-auBM8s-5PT6fr-9t3k9S-bnrUFH-8Vxjis-7FjQRm-5XesDq-6Djvgo-bW5Dp5-8Y6jv7-8Y39wV-8Y3gTT/>.