New Media

The advent of new media, which started during the late 80s, has loosened the concept of media from mass communication into something that is very personal and interactive. What used to be very broad and encompassing has now transformed into a medium that allows the audience to gather individualized knowledge and information. Apart from this, new media also offered its audience a new sense of personalized communication, which was never present with traditional mediums such as radio, television, and print (Littlejohn and Foss 291).

With this newfound freedom, it is not surprising why more and more people are turning their faces from the boob tube into the flat screens of their computer. Chat and emails has made communication a lot faster and more global. For instance, individuals who are located from different poles of the globe can now simultaneously communicate and exchange ideas. Such mediums also allow them to transfer and swap photos, music, and videos. Social networking sites are now also considered as trendy and hip. It does not only permit the user to broadcast information about his likes and interest, but it likewise allows him or her to create a social network of friends without having the need to go out from the comforts of his or her home.

Thus, new media, particularly the Internet, has provided its audience with a mediated reality. The face-to-face interaction of the olden days is now reduced to something digital. Although, this new forms of interaction allows the user to communicate in ways that older media could not provide, it is also essential to ask effects of this mediated reality.

According to many communication scholars, a mediated form of communication presents powers and advantages as well as disadvantages and limits. Social integration for example, is one of the greatest values of new media (Littlejohn and Foss 291). This means that this medium allows its audience to create a diverse and wide set of contacts and even relationships. As seen in social sites such as Facebook and Multiply, more and more people creating online friends that are not limited by space. This community of users gives them a sense of belongingness or a feeling that everyone fits in. However, the same medium also presents the problem of identity. Since face-to-face interaction is not necessary, users can easily create a new person or a new them which they can easily present to other online users. One can easily change and transform his or her personality and even identity. By doing so, new media only fuels the person to become someone that he or she is not in order to feel that sense of belongingness.

Likewise, this cyber interaction has become a mere ritualized habit. Since actual interaction is no longer required, people may tend to communicate not because they want to, but because it has become a ritual. For instance, a user might want to check the Washington Post Online or their email, not so much, because he or she wants to know the news or check their email but because it is merely set as the computers homepage. Thus, checking it has become a formalized habit.

New media has also indirectly fueled and promoted physical inactivity. Since face-to-face interaction is no longer the gold standard for making new friends, people no longer exert the effort to go out of their houses and socialize with the real world. Instead of engaging in sports or other activities, most individuals would settle in front of their computer. Thus, typing and mouse clicking has become their only source of physical activity. According to recent research studies, about 60 percent of Americans have gained additional pounds because of the decline of physical inactivity (Geralds 1). This rising cause of epidemic is now fast becoming a problem among children. Kids today who are more exposed to new media, tend to be more overweight and weaker as compared to children who constantly play outside.

According to the communication scholar Harold Adams Innis, communication media are the essence of civilization (Littlejohn and Foss 291). This only goes to say that new media along with its disadvantages are now shaping mans history. With this in mind, perhaps it is also important for people to understand how to properly use the computer and the Internet to his advantage. This means that users should be aware and educated not only about the benefits of new media but most importantly about the dangers of todays digital culture.