...I, Media vs Mass Media (Final)

The answer to THE question, "How can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communication technology?" is best illustrated in Gladston's remarks on pages 150 through the end of the book.

One thing she insists we must do is play an active roll in our media consumption.  To me she's warning us to not be like most peopl and stand with their mouths open to injest media just because it is thrown their way. We have to be wise media consumers!  I think this fact is illustrated in her statement found on p. 150 "...trusting reporters who demonstrate fairness and reliability over time, offering corrections when they get something wrong, and when we care enough--reading the original documents they worked from."

Another way we insure this development as "moral and social animals" is to form groups or "larger and richer webs of interdependence" as she calls them.  She's inviting us here to become independent thinkers, realize that media can be a tool one of the most powerful persuasive devices.  Realize that "we get what we deserve."  These webs of interdependence are forming because many people share similar ideas. Now more than ever their voices can be heard.  This is evident in the Kony 2012 campaign put on by the invisible children organization.  The idea, to stop Joseph Kony, one of the world's worst war criminals is powerful.  As of right now the campaign video http://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc has recieved over 88 million views.  Millions of people were affected by the idea that stopping Kony is a just and important cause. This group formed from an powerful idea, now the group has potential to make a difference. Whether or not that will happen is to be determined but it has unfortunately failed in many ways which is a whole discussion in and of itself.

Another important idea that Gladstone tries to get accross is that "Worrying about offending people drags us back to the lowest common denominator. Any company that offers cool devices—but bans applications that might offend some users—stands in the way of evolution" (p. 151). I think what she is talking about here is what we just saw with the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) which many believe would cause serious restrictions and bans on the internet, some might even say unconstitutional.  From the article "How Sopa Would Affect You: FAQ" found on the cnet news website big internet companies say that SOPA is "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity."

I think the reason Gladstone poses this question near the end of her book is to help us realize that if we're not playing an active role in our media consumption the media will...well consume us.  We would soon believe that we're under the influence of a machine.  Media and technology would become our enemy rather than one of the greatest tools that has ever been created, tools that have the potential to advance human kind. 

"Our enimies are not the digital bits that dance across our screens but the neural impulses that animate our lizard brains." (p. 155)

Sources:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/

 http://www.kony2012.com/