Introduction to The New Media Reader

Most of the textbooks I have read both in high school and at university have been hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages of well-researched fat.  History textbooks have informed me of  what happened hundreds of thousands of years ago and how it affected countries years after.  Science textbooks have shown me how developed our knowledge of biology or chemistry has become since the days of Galileo and the like.

The New Media Reader, on the other hand, is doing something different, as apparent in the introduction.  Instead of giving a historical, permanent account of a subject, it is collecting ideas on a developing subject, one with an vast array of opinion and thought.  

In one of my Gallatin classes, Objectivity and the Politics of the Journalistic Revolution, the professor said that one of the most fascinating things when thinking about all of this new media that continuously becomes more and more developed, is that for one of the first times in history, the younger generations know more about what is going on than the older generations do.  "...[T]he term 'new media' is a sign of our current confusion about where...efforts are leading and...[the] breathless...pace of change..." (3).

Everything from Internet development to the mass production of the iPod has significantly effected my generation, and those younger and older than me.  IN my opinion, this is predominantly because, as a result of the time period in which I was born, I have been able to escape more frequently, get out of difficult situation, etc., because of the constant developments in technology.  My mother always used to tell me that she was amazed at how much we spoke to one another after I went to college.  When she was in college, she would tell me, there was one phone --in the hallway of her dorm -- and you were lucky if you had the chance to use it, and even luckier if you managed to get a message.

The introduction to the text talks about the computer as a physical place, one that can be entered--and as seen in the Guild series, this idea is widely accepted.  While I don't personally play online games, I can relate to using technology to enter into a different realm -- non-face-to-face.  Frequently, I can be found during high stress times listening to my iPod on high volume, consciously trying to look unavailable to those around me even if I am physically in the room.  The ability to carry around a small device with good sound that can hold every one of my favorite, stress-reducing, songs, has enabled me to virtually carry around my other world in my school-bag, and as long as it is charged, I can disappear for a little.