New Media

We live in an exciting time in which new media technology is driving massive social, economic and cultural change. There has always been considerable concern about the effect of media technology.

“A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload,” writes Vaughn Bell in the article Don’t Touch That Dial. “In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both “confusing and harmful” to the mind. The media now echo his concerns with reports on the unprecedented risks of living in an “always on” digital environment. It’s worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That’s not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565. His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press.”

In the last decades, concern has flourished over violence in video games, the effect of social networking and the rise of internet piracy – just to name a few of the technologies that are causing significant change.