#Sub-“telegramming” – The role of gossip and technology in “We of the Never-Never”
Today social media is one of the main outlets that people communicate and look for information. Many people “like”, “pin”, “retweet”, and more to express their satisfaction or disapproval regarding the happenings of the world and their personal worlds. On Twitter, sub-tweeting, or writing a post about someone indirectly, has been made a method of gossip and has caused much discord between individuals. While reading Jeannie Gunn’s autobiographical account, We of the Never-Never, I could not help but notice how the telegram served a major role in communication and the social climate of the text. The text often exposed the private messages that were under the surface.
Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness spoke to me about the question of forgiveness and repentance. Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He experienced many brutal and uneasy experiences that no human being should experience in their lifetime and bear to live with it. Death, suffering, and despair were common to Simon Wiesenthal that he questioned his own religious faith because he asks why would his God allow the Holocaust happen to his people to be slaughter and not do anything to save them. During Simon Wiesenthal time as a Jewish Holocaust, Simon was invited to a military hospital where a dying Nazi SS officer wanted to have a conversation. The Nazi SS officer told Simon his story of his life and confesses to Simon of his horrific war crimes. Ultimately, the SS officer wanted forgiveness for what he done to Simon’s Jewish people. Simon Wiesenthal could not respond to his request, because he did not know what to do with a war criminal that participate in mass genocide to Simon’s people. Simon Wiesenthal lives throughout his life on asking the same crucial question, “What would I have done?” (Wiesenthal 98). If the readers would be on the exact situation as Simon was
While social media can be an exceptional tool for connecting with others and gaining valuable information, it also can be easily transformed into a playground for senseless arguments and cyberbullying. Just as Abigail Williams used elaborate accusations towards innocent people for her benefit, people engage in plenty of finger-pointing and fear-mongering daily. The shame and fear generated by this is not far from the craze of McCarthyism from half a century ago. Furthermore, social media can be a catalyst for the destruction of privacy: there is no limit to how much one can share. Everyone in “The Crucible” has inner humiliations that haunt their minds, from John Proctor’s adultery to Reverend Hale’s inner moral conflict towards Salem’s trials. Today, with one click, these personal demons can easily be set free.
Although the book focuses primarily on one communication technology, the principles and examples are applicable to a much broader range of media. The author spends considerable time describing the social mores of the American people and the resulting cultural metamorphosis that appears to have occurred because of the technological changes. He begins with a quote issued by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), “The telephone is essentially democratic; it carries the voice of the child and the grown-up with equal speed and directness…It is not only the implement of the individual, but it fulfills the needs of all the people (Fischer, 1992).” If we substitute the word posting for telephone, you can see how this concept applies to a much broader technological and temporal field. Similarly, published in 1881, just 35 years earlier, in an article about the telegraph, the journal Scientific American, stated, “(it) promoted a kinship of humanity (Fischer, 1992).” Again, by applying that same concept to the general act of posting reveals the relationship between early iconography and modern social media posts and it becomes clear that the “specific devices” are less important than the need for recognition and subsequent act of communication in and of
In the article “ I Tweet, Therefore I Am” (2010), Peggy Orenstein explains that social media such as twitter can express who you are as a person and make you come to the realization of how your life is defined. Orenstein supports this explanation by giving her own personal experience on her twitter experiment. The author’s purpose is to point out that not all people who are hooked to social media have lost the disconnection of feelings along with relationships between people. Orenstein writes in a reflective tone for students and adults.
“Nothing is perfect.” Though social media brings us uncountable convenience, there is a trade-off with the convenience. Due to the advanced technology we have, social media has become part of our life, which it means that social media could determine our sociability. In Peggy Orenstein’s “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” though she praises Tweeter for its convenience, at the same time, she also worries that “(Tweeter) makes the greasepaint permanent, blurring the lines not only between public and private but also between the authentic and contrived self.” Since we don’t care about who we talk to, we might act abnormally due to our feelings, and
Picard, A. P. (2011, March 20). The History of Twitter, 140 Characters At A Time. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/the-history-of-twitter-140-characters-at-a-time/article573416/
For many, the preferred mode of conversation today is through texting. Sherry Turkle explores this topic in her excerpt “The Flight from Conversation”. She uses paradoxes and pathos to prove we live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating, yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.
In the article “Social Media and Interpersonal”,Maura Keller uses credible and realistic information to connect to the readers. However, to some people her info is false but some would say her idea authentic. The article’s main points are on communication overload, how bullying gets involved, and lack of privacy from social media. This article not only does it explains the impact social media has on society but it tries let the reader see the future social media.
Levy, Ariel. “Trial by Twitter.” The New Yorker 89.23 (2013): 38-49. Ebsco Host. Web. 15 Apr.
Orenstein, Peggy. “I Tweet, Therefore I Am.” What Matters In America. Third Edition.Gary Goshgarian and Kathryn Goodfellow. New Jersey: Pearson, 2012. 40-43. Print.
As social media overtakes traditional media in this new technological age, news organizations and journals have sought to keep up today’s trends in order to maximize their revenue and maintain traffic. As Clive Thompson stated in his article titled This Just In : I’m Twittering, he mentions that “the power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.” News environments are rapidly changing to adapt with the diffusion of social media in order to promote their news products and reach to more people than ever before. Like other technological changes, social media is changing how society receive their news and keep updated with current events.
In the year of 1971, the very first email was sent and delivered. Since then, the world has seen tremendous advancements in technology and social media. Long distance communication has transformed from hand writing and mailing someone a letter in order to reach him or her, to typing someone a quick text message on a smart phone. These advancements have significantly improved the way the world communicates with one another and has connected lives in ways never thought possible. But at what cost? Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have provided a popular means of communication, but not without the expense of privacy, self-esteem, and a sense of connection. Privacy is an issue for many users of social media sites because
One of the main reasons why social media has positively affected our society is because of how it has made communicating with people much easier. “Today, four out of five active internet users maintain at least one social media profile” (Moe, 3). Using these websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and etc., people talk about everything with anyone from what they are planning to do, also what they are eating and much more (Moe, 24). Also we can also send private messages to other users of these websites about personal m...
The social media is one of the most common means of communication and pretty much of knowing anything and everything around the world these days, and it is growing very rapidly. It changes and affects each person in a different way, or ways. Some may argue that social media has a bad influence on children and young adults, while most people see that the social media has a more positive effect on them than a negative one. Social media is basically the new way of keeping in touch with everything and everyone, and of even strengthening bonds between each other. This essay will argue that social media has improved communication between people, and has also improved the means of communication between them.
Social media, however, is the future of communication. It is a relatively new form of media and it makes the transfer of photos, audio, video, text and information increasingly fluid among internet users. Today we have platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where people can share as much or as little personal information as they desire with other members of the communities. The result of this is an