Jodie

__WHY I CHOSE MY TOPIC__ When I was a child, I used to play my Disney cartoons in a VCR and listen to my music via cassette player. Never would I have imagined watching a movie or playing music with such laser technologies as compact discs. When I first saw a CD, I thought it more to resemble a frisbee rather than something I could be entertained with electronically. Nowadays, I'm simply a click away from my email, news sources, and even college lectures. It seems as though communication is forever changed due to all of our newly discovered complex technologies and we are never going back. My final presentation topic has been driven purely from amazement and curiosity of the technologies that now drive the very planet we live on.

__OVERVIEW__ Because of all of the technology I have already been introduced to, it no longer surprises me to read news captions saying, "building an elevator to space." I think the most important thing I have learned through all of my research is that I have mixed feelings about all of the various technologies surrounding our world. Granted technology has provided fast and convenient means of communication, but in all fairness, it must be questioned if there are also negative effects involved. Who can truthfully state that human kind will not get lost in the midst of our own progressions? And can we keep up with such a vast amount of advancements? One must question whether we will become as cold and lifeless as the machines that drive our very lives. I believe it is too early to depict whether or not technology will bear more positive influences on our world, or will prove to be a hinderance on a society completely dependent upon it. My blog pertaining to mass media in everyday life is directly correlated to these ideas....check it out! []

__LEARNING OUTCOME 5__ A major problem has arisen in our consumption of the media. The very people that sponsor media can control what information people are given and how they will perceive it. I think that technology can be a solution to this problem. In previous times, there were limited resources of where we receive our information and now with our vast array of new technologies, we have many choices of where we can get our news. We are offered just about every opinion to ever exist in neverending sources via the internet. The internet is merely the world at our fingertips. We are informed sometimes by sources millions of miles away. Without the internet, we are limited to certain knowledges that cannot be accessed through television, radio, or the paper, which in turn would put a damper on cross-cultured subjections. In other words, we would know far less about what is happening globally and more directed to only national events.

__LEARNING OUTCOME 6__ Though we are free to choose our media sources, could this also raise concern for just how much media we consume? Aside from third-world nations, it seems hard to see the world separate from technology. It seems as though almost every single thing we do in our everyday lives somehow involves technology and the media. Most of us no longer even wake up to old fashioned alarm clocks anymore, but to our cell phones. I can't imagine looking outside of my window and not seeing telephone lines, billboards, or some type of reference to a technological device. Are we consuming technology, or is technology consuming us? It may be challenging nowadays to do this, but I think we should try to limit our media and technology consumptions. Maybe, just maybe, we can get back in touch with our natural, human, machineless selves.

__5 TAKEAWAYS__ 1. Technology has opened a vast amount of doors to information pertaining to the entire universe. 2. Media markets are a driving force in society 3. Mass media and technology will forever have unprecedented effects on consumers' internal motives. 4. All rural living areas may be subject to the influence of growing urban communities. 5. Mass media may be connected to the impersonalizations and dehumanizations of communication.