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Research: https://research.usc.edu/usc-symposium-on-digital-media-research-education-and-innovation/
Digital media are relatively new inventions that have a strong influence in humans’ life across the globe. More and more people in this today’s era tend to depend on them in terms of communicating and acquiring information and entertainment. The role of digital media is increasingly crucial for human’s life that will certainly difficult to imagine what things would be like today without them. Langdon Winner (1997, p. 1001) described several benefits of digital media for human throughout the world in this technology age. They are: well-being, freedom, satisfaction, advancement, and achievement. “New technology will bring universal wealth, enhanced freedom, revitalized politics, satisfying community, and personal fulfillment.” Langdon Winner (1997, p. 1001). No one can deny the benefits of the digital media. It is instantly providing information about events around the world that is largely taken for granted by society around the world. As a matter of fact, there is a similarity among the society in communicating. Therefore, people who live far away will not feel lost because of the help of digital media. That is why conducting and analyzing textual representations of digital media culture is mainly essential.
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ACSPY, Wise Gadget Use for the ‘Mobile’ Generation
http://www.acespy.com/blog/wise-gadget-use-for-the-‘mobile’-generation/
In this digital age, there is a tendency that occurs in younger generation’s habits in terms of obtaining information as well as communicating. It is called ‘global youth culture’; a term that represents young generations around the world nowadays in performing a common interest. Moreover, digital media, which currently have mushroomed all over the world, become the essential formation of the individual habitus. Habitus defined by French sociologist, Pierre Bordieu, (cited in David L Swartz 2002, pp. 615), is a tendency in which an individual has some specific activities or life experiences that often done and taken for granted. “Bourdieu’s attempted to address the questions how human action is regulated and how human action follows regular statistical patterns without being the product of obedience to some external structure” (David L Swartz 2002, pp. 615). In other words, in a particular situation of individual’s action, which the media expose, is defined by habitus.
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Bulletin,(Thread: Swipe File Is Going The Distance, But Hates “Luv Storys”)
Take for example a film that performs that kind of habitus, “Going the Distance” (2010). This is a film by Nanette Burstein, released in 2010 starring by Drew Barrymore and Justin Long that represents a new habit of a couple who undergo a long distance relationship in this digital era. Through this film, some digital media such as telephone, computer, laptop, and other digital devices are becoming the most essential medium that couples usually use in order to carry out a long-distance relationship. Through this film, audiences can also see that the younger generations in this technological era has similarities in communicating and using new media. New media such as Skype, Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Live Journal, Blogger, WordPress and so on are the most commonly used media among humans across the world in this current digital era. In other words, digital media and new media bring uniformity among all people around the world in order to communicate and acquire information.
The easiness in communicating that is indicated on this film is caused by digital media and technology service. As now we lived in electronic age, the way we received the message are automatically different from previous era, in which print media such as newspapers and letters are the main medium previously. However, in this digital era, digital media are massively developing to reach their potential. Based on McLuhan (1969), there is a significant change of communicating from printing era into the electronic era. This condition indicates that there is a huge social change and the existence of technology. Since we live in technology era, the way we communicate is dramatically different from the previous era, where everything are not as sophisticated as now. Hirst and Harrison (2007, pg. 28) are supported this statement by saying that this digital era brings continuous development that make works easier, sophisticated, as well as make people feel more enjoy.
A long distance relationship is so difficult to do in the previous era, in which the main media are only letters and telephone. However, ‘Going the Distance’ film indicates that those people who undergo a long distance relationship in this current era do not need to worry because digital media along with the Internet and new media will assist them to communicate easily. Digital media and new media help people who live in distant places to feel closer. It is can be demonstrated on the film when Garrett (Justin Long) and Erin (Drew Barrymore) can celebrate the New Year together via Skype. They also can laugh together on funny video that is attached and sent by Garret via Windows Live. They can also perform phone sex via phone. This film gives the message to the audience that conducting a long distance relationship is not as difficult as we might imagine because now we live in digital era. There are webcam and laptop or computer, which allow us to talk to each other as if we are doing a face-to-face interaction. We can also use our cell phone to do chatting fast, easily and practically with SMS, Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, and so on.
In conclusion, in this current era, digital media has become an important role for all people across the world. Everyone agreed that digital media in today’s era brought great influence on society’s communication system. It can be seen in which there is a tendency of people in communicating. They use digital media, Internet and new media, which as a result there is uniformity in terms of communicating and receiving information. A movie “Going the distance”, also indicates that using digital media and new media to communicate become ordinary activity in daily life. Moreover, this film also shows that undergoing a long-distance relationship is no longer becoming an obstacle for any couple as digital media allow them to communicate easily.
Reference List:
- Hirst, M & Harrison, J 2007, ‘Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast’, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
- McLuhan, M 1969, Extract from the ‘Interview with Eric Norden’, Playboy, March, pp. 53–62, 64–6, 68, 70, 72, 74, 158.
- Swartz, D.L. 2002, ‘The sociology of habit: The perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’, in The Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, Winter, Vol. 22, Supplement, p. 615
- Winner, Langdon. “Technology today: utopia or dystopia?” Social Research 64.3 (1997): 989- 1017.
Live in Globalization Era 