Communication is a very powerful tool that has
changed over time through the use of technology, which shapes the culture and
leads to social change. There are many sources that help to educate the masses
about how communication has changed and how it affects the population as a
whole. Press Pause Play is a
documentary, featuring the words of many famous individuals in popular culture,
that discusses how technology has changed and how that change influences the
democratization of art. Two chapters titled Culture
and Communication Parts I and II from a textbook provide ideas from
educated sources about how technology influences mass popular culture around
the world. Another reading titled (E)dentity,
by Stephanie Vie, discusses what an (e)dentity is and how that can affect
the way people see who others are as a person. Also, four videos helped to
provide knowledge about communication between individuals and how humans are
empathetic and helpful to one another. First, The Empathic Civilisation, by Jeremy Rifkin, explained what mirror
neurons are and how they affect the interaction between humans. Mirror neurons
relate to why humans are empathetic towards each other and how it is changing
the global consciousness. Second, Roman Krzarnic gave a lecture called The Power of Outrospection describing
affective and cognitive empathy. Krzarnic introduced the idea that the 21st
century needs to be about outrospection, or feeling empathetic towards others
rather than focusing only on oneself. Third, Changing Paradigms, a lecture by Sir Ken Robinson, gave a whole
different perspective on the education system and how it could be changed for
the better. It also looks at the growth of ADHD and how the pills that children
are taking for ADHD aren’t working to help them become more educated. The last
lecture, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce,
by Slavoj Zizek, gave insight to cultural capitalism in which people aren’t
actually always sympathetic to others, but majorities of the time are just
playing a role of being a sympathetic individual. Finally, the documentary Craigslist Joe follows Joseph Garner on
a journey where he attempts to survive completely off of Craigslist for an
entire month. He meets a number of very empathetic individuals who offer him
places to stay, food, travel, etc. simply because they want to help another
human being out. Throughout history, mass communication and popular culture has
changed due to advances in technology and the way human beings can communicate
with one another which allows for empathy in every possible aspect.
Technology, including technology interface, is
constantly changing which allows people the ability to communicate easier, but can
also create two different lives for every one person. People have friends in
their life, but also have the ability to be a completely different person,
which can be seen in the reading (e)dentity.
“…We also carry with us an ‘(e)dentity, an electronic identity composed of
the digital traces left behind as we participate in virtual worlds. Every time
you upload a picture to a social networking site, create an avatar in an online
game, blog or tweet about your life, or buy something online, you generate
digital traces that, when examined, form your (e)dentity,” (Stephanie Vie 1). Originally,
nobody had an (e)dentity because there was no Internet, but technology has
evolved immensely in the past few decades and now almost everybody has two
separate identities. We use our online identity in various ways, such as to
communicate with others, but more importantly it provides us with the ability
to see what popular culture is at any moment. Humans have a different amount of
access to the technology due to contrast between various societies and how
humans receive mass communication. “Psychological noise refers to internal
factors that lead to misunderstandings in the communication process. The
concept of psychological noise comes from consistency theory research that
found that people usually prefer to seek out information and ideas that are
consistent with their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior and tend to avoid
information that is inconsistent. Selective exposure holds that, as a general
rule, we expose ourselves to information that reinforces rather than
contradicts our beliefs or opinions,” (Wilson, Wilson 11). Every person has
different access to mass culture because they choose what they want to see, as
well as the society may choose for them. Some countries have strong religious
beliefs in their law, so citizens are not allowed to use the Internet, or parts
of it, meaning that not everybody will see popular culture as easily as others.
Lastly, humans try to help others that are not able to access the Internet due
to not having the wealth for it. Agenda setting allows for mass media to decide
what news the masses can see and therefore show people that they are helping
those less fortunate through their purchases. “This is what I call cultural
capitalism at its purest. You don’t just buy a coffee, you buy, in the very
consumerist act; you buy your redemption from being only a consumerist. You do
something for the environment, you do something to help starving children in
Guatemala, you do something to restore the sense of community here… This
generates almost a kind of semantic over-investment or burden,” (Slavoj Zizek).
Everyone thinks that they are helping an unfortunate individual, but in reality
it is the mass media creating cultural capitalism so that you pay into their
company rather than another company. Technology isn’t easily available to
everyone, so through charity people are able to give to them, however it just
turns into cultural capitalism. On the Earth, some people don’t have access to
technology or may use it in a different way, and through this evolution
different cultures don’t always receive the same mass communication that everyone
else receives.
The impact that technology has on popular culture
comes, at the root, from various changes in communication, technology, and how
technology is used as a vehicle which can be seen through various sources.
Democratization is the act of allowing technology to everyone which gives
everyone the opportunity to get into the creative industry, rather than being
as talented and having to go to school like it used to be a few years ago. “There
were professional artists and now everybody’s a musician… And suddenly I
understood, like, this is a different world and it’s possible for anybody to
make a movie now,” (PressPausePlay). In
the past few years, advanced technology has become available to the public
which allows anyone to make it in the creative industry. Before this time,
people had to go to school and study the professionals in order to get a career
as a creative, but now that technology has evolved, anyone can become a
professional creative if they produce content that the appeals to popular
culture. Technology itself has also evolved allowing everyone to know what the
current popular culture is. “The newspaper found its niche by becoming a medium
from which the common person could learn about what was happening in his or her
city… Radio’s more important function was as a mass medium for news and
entertainment… Television was invented as a potential replacement for radio by
adding a picture to the sound… Critics also detested the fact that the mass
media conformed to average tastes and did nothing to elevate the cultural level
of the masses,” (Wilson, Wilson 28-32). Popular culture was made available to
the masses which lowered the cultural level of the masses because anybody could
understand what was popular culture, rather than just the elite being able to
access and understand the technology. This was a major impact on culture because
it lower the elitist culture since everyone had access and it conformed to the
masses so that anyone could easily understand it. With this new availability of
technology, it changed the entire world, especially the education system to
where some students no longer wanted to participate because they believe they
can earn a career as a creative. “When we went to school we were kept there
with a story which is if you worked hard and did well and got a college degree,
you would have a job. Our kids don’t believe that, and they’re right not to by
the way. You’re better having a degree than not, but it’s not a guarantee
anymore,” (Sir Ken Robinson). This new idea of education has impacted culture
because children no longer need to go to school. It is risky to not go, but a
child could make a career as a creative and would never need to go to school
because they have access to technology that can help them succeed in another
industry. Mass communication can also help these children to put their
creativity into the world, simply from sitting in one spot. The evolution of
technology and communication has drastically impacted the culture of the world
and popular culture in individual societies.
Mass communication is a powerful tool for empathy
because humans can see what others are feeling, react to it, and help them for
the better. Everyone has empathy inside of them because they learn about life
at a young age which makes everyone want to help each other. “When a child
learns that life is vulnerable and fragile and every moment is precious and
that they have their own unique history, it allows a child then to experience
another plight in the same way. That that other person or other being, could be
another creature, has a one and only life, it’s tough to be alive, and the odds
are not always good. So if you think about the times that we’ve empathized with
each other or a fellow creature, it’s always because we felt their struggle. Is
it really a big stretch to imagine that new technologies allowing us to connect
our empathy to the human race writ large in a single biosphere?” (Jeremy
Rifkin). Every individual has empathy inside of them because they understand
that every creature has one life. People are able to extend this empathy to
humans in other parts of the world because through mass communication and mass
media anyone can see what is happening to humans on another part of the world.
Through this availability of mass media, people feel empathy for others on a
different part of the world because they can see their struggle and relate to
it. Humans originally only felt this empathy towards people of the same
religion, ethnic group, or country, however that has evolved over years and now
the majority of humans feel empathetic towards all humans, some even toward all
creatures. “Socrates said that the way to live a wise and good life was to know
thyself. And we generally thought of that as being self-reflective, looking in
at ourselves, it’s been about introspection. But I think in the 21st
century we need to recognize that to know thyself is something that can also be
achieved by stepping outside yourself, by discovering other people’s lives and
I think empathy is the way to revolutionize our own philosophies of life, to become
more outrospective and to create the revolution of human relationships that I
think we so desperately need,” (Roman Krznaric). This century needs to be about
helping others because we feel empathetic towards them. Mass communication can
let anyone empathize for another person that is anywhere because humans see
what they are struggling with and feel empathetic towards them which can lead
to helping them in some way. The use of technology can let people help others
because people empathize with others they see through a technological interface
and then can help them using another piece of technology. Years ago, there was
only the newspaper or maybe radio, so it was difficult to help people that
lived far away and before that people didn’t even know what was happening to
others outside of their own community. Now-a-days anyone that feels empathetic
toward another human can find a way to help them. Currently, a great example of
this is the documentary Craigslist Joe,
where Joseph Garner meets people through Craigslist that help give him shelter,
food, travel, and a good time for an entire month. “Meeting everyone and
telling them my story and the journey and having people, like, invite me, a
complete stranger, into their homes, and feed me, and go out, and, you know,
share themselves and their lives with me. It was truly inspiring, just you know,
on humanity, to know that we can take care of each other,” (Joseph Garner). Empathy
is possible through technology which can easily be seen through this
documentary. Every single day Garner has to go online to see if anyone is
offering shelter or travel so that he can survive. For an entire month, Garner
was able to survive off the empathy of others that he found through technology.
This would have been incredibly difficult years ago because the interfaces
wouldn’t have allowed for him to see what people were offering on that exact
day, but with the evolution of technology, anyone can easily see what people
are offering at that exact moment. Empathy is easily possible through
technology these days, especially with the current technological interfaces.
Throughout history, mass communication and popular
culture has changed due to advances in technology and the way human beings can
communicate with one another which allows for empathy in every possible aspect.
Many sources can be found that demonstrate how empathy has changed in humans,
yet, at the same time, remained the same because everyone realizes that all
creatures have one life. Originally that empathy was only between people of the
same tribe, religion, or region, however technology has evolved so that any
human can communicate with any other human on the planet which allows for
people to feel empathetic to all humans and creatures of earth. Technological
advances have shaped that empathy as well as the popular culture of societies. Culture
changes because mass communication and agenda setting show the public what the
popular culture is. This has changed the many industries because now, anyone
can succeed as a creative if they follow popular culture and use mass
communication to get well known. School is no longer needed for people to get
educated on the technology that creative use because they are made for anyone
to use. This has changed education because children don’t necessarily need to
go to school anymore since they can now learn how to use the current technology
to get a career in the creative industry. Technology is constantly changing and
nobody knows where it could lead to in the future with the education system,
mass communication, and popular culture, but hopefully no matter where it goes,
humans continue to feel empathetic towards other, if not even more empathetic
towards all creatures.
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