Media Ecology

To be honest, I had no idea what Media Ecology meant. I have heard the word media thousands of times and I knew ecology was the study of the interaction between an organism and their environment (don’t ask how I knew that). To get a better understanding of what it was, I googled it.

It’s crazy to me that googled is considered a word. Its the past tense of google. I literally just googled the definition of google. It means to search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet using the search engine Google.

Our world thinks google is such a big idea that it is now considered a word. Before September 4, 1998 (yes I googled when google was created), no one had any idea what google was.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog. What is Media Ecology? Wikipedia gave me the best definition. I know most people say Wikipedia is a terrible website and should never be used, but I break the rules and do it all the time. I think I love Wikipedia because it’s written by a person that can be easily understood by most common people. I’m not a scholastic author that understands everything. Wikipedia claims that media ecology  centers on the principles that technology not only profoundly influences society, it also controls virtually all walks of life; it is a study of how media and communication processes affect human perception and understanding.

Do I believe media controls most of the human world? Absolutely. Our world is centered around technology. Especially with social media. I don’t think I could go 10 minutes in class without seeing someone pull out their phone and checking their social media. 74% of online users have a social media account. 71% of online users have a Facebook account (Pew Research Center). That’s insane to me how popular it’s become over 12 years. You can see more fun facts about social media users at the link below.

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/

Is it a good thing? It’s hard to say. Part of our reading this week was the article Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies. It talks about the effects of social media in the art world. Social media helps art organizations open up to the world and also get feedback. In Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies claims 81% of the organizations in their survey say the internet and digital technologies are “very important” for promoting the arts. I completely agree. Without social media, it would take a very long and hard process to get the information out. Now with a touch of a button an organization can share their art work with millions of people. They can interact and spread the word much quicker. But they also claims its disrupted the art world. The article states,

“The internet and digital technologies have also disrupted much of the traditional art world, according to these organizations. It has changed audience expectations, put more pressure on arts groups to participate actively in social media and, in some circumstances, undercut organizations’ missions and revenue streams.”

If you don’t conform to the ways of society, you fail. Which is hard for a lot of people to understand.

It’s not question that media ecology works around the world. People are conforming to using social media because it helps get their information out much faster. They are able to do so much more than what they were limited to back in the day.

Work Sited

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=definition+of+googled

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/04/arts-organizations-and-digital-technologies/