001.01. Facebook as Medium & Message. Final comments.

Thank you very much for a short-lived discussion. I think the bingo worked somehow but it must be perfected along the way. It has potential though, don't you think.

To wrap this introductory weeks and move on please REFLECT on the following thought expressed by Pope Pius XII who was, according to Marshal McLuhan, deeply concerned about the progress and expansion of contemporary media. On February 17, 1950, he said:

"It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of modern society and the stability of its inner life depend in large part on the maintenance of an equilibrium between the strength of the techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual's own reaction."

Based on Pope Puis XII's quote and of YOUR understanding/interpretation of the seminal McLuhan quote of "The Medium is the Message" provide a closing comment on the materials we have walked through so far.

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Comments

[Michelle Wheeler]

In response to our discussions about mass media over the past few weeks, my greatest takeaway is that we—as individuals—have a false perception of influence. Many actions we perceive as our own are in actuality manifestations of extrinsic influence. Do you want a new mattress because you actually have issues sleeping through the night, or do you want one because the commercial offers the mystique of something you think you’re missing out on? There is a difference between perception and reality, and the various industries that utilize mass media have become experts at manipulating society’s perceptions…NOT their realities.

I think that Pope Puis XII is trying to draw attention to the idea that we shouldn’t lose touch with reality. It is crucial that the human element is not lost in the abyss known as cyber space. With the emergence of the virtual world, there has also been an emergence of viruses, cyber bullying, online stalking, easily accessible pornography, and other transporters of “evil.” From a religious perspective, it’s easy to see how the cyber world poses a threat to individuals. However, the Pope states how relevant “the maintenance of an equilibrium” is in terms of protecting our humanity.

[Konomi Takemoto]

I think that Pope Puis XII is trying to say that we need to have a good balance between various communication techniques and our ability to "respond" to it. Though we have been talking about both positive and negative influence of Facebook or other medium, it is clear that we benefit from these commmunication techniques in our every day life. But we also need to realize how our communication medium have influence on out lives in negative way, so responding to every single message sent by medium in the world might have negative impact on us. I think it is important for us to be able to consider the message and "respond" to it so that we make the best use of our information network.

[Ballmeup45]

I feel that the Pope is simply advising people to have a limit. Like not every time someone posts something do you need to look, or you dont need to know that people are doing useless shit like im in the bathroom and such. So to me his statement is just to watch how you abuse such mediums, and to make sure that your reaction is appropriate. Such as, its okay to reconnect with friends and stuff, but to give a play-by-play run thru of your day including eating sleeping and things is excessive.

[Julie Fergus]

Facebook has changed the way we perceive the world. It is common for individuals within our generation to assume that pictures taken at an event will inevitably wind up on Facebook, or that if a couple is dating their relationship status will become "Facebook official." Because Facebook is always on our mind, it has become one of our most-used mediums of communication.

Pope Puis XII warns us that in order to communicate, we must be able to do so effectively, and understand how the reciever of our communication reacts. This is difficult to do via online social networking mediums, such as Facebook. Typed messages do not contain the implied emotions and connotations that spoken messages do, mostly because when we speak we change the influction in our voice, change the expression on our face, use our body (hands, arms, etc.) for extra emphasis or explanation, etc. Our communication via Facebook becomes much more robtronic. We also have no way of knowing how the receiver actually reacts to the messages we send via Facebook, because messages are typically sent from different locations--the sender and receiver are not actively communicating with one another at one common location. Thus, the Pope stresses that if we are going to continue using Facebook as prevelently as we are, we must find alternative opportunities to maintain our communication skills in which we communicate face to face with individuals. Facebook can allow us to hide behind the things we are too afraid to say in person, but Pope Puis XII does not want us to lose the ability to do so.

[juan yanqui]

The assumption made by the Pope in the early years of mass media flourishing, is an attempt to warn humanity against the powerful influence of manipulative communication.

In fact, his statement -regarding the connection between the communication techniques and the individual’s reaction towards contemporary media- is being proved in our every day life.

The perception we have about reality is being constantly bammed by the grim commercial purposes of profit companies. This is, from a very economic point of view all the objects being consumed have a certain degree of pleasure. This pleasure gives us a certain level of satisfaction which is measured in utils.

If you think about it, from the available infinite things and brands there are in the market, we manage to sort out a certain set of goods to buy. What is the force that drives us to buy Tide freshness detergent in a green container rather than Purex free and clear detergent in a white container, if both of them have the same chemical composition?

From my point of view, there is a very strong influence of mass media in the acquisition of value for every single good which is out in the market. This influence plays a very important role in purchasing any single thing, with this in mind: the product buys the consumer, and the consumer -we- is simply the engine which keeps running the big factory of consumerism and branding.

PS: check the link! It is a pretty interesting map of Online Communities.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/map-of-online-communities_n_675759.html

[Massey]

This quote shows the importance of maintaining a balance of power between the producers and consumers of media. The twentieth century was unable to do this but the twenty first has the ability to put more power into the consumers of media's hands and get back to equilibrium.
The twentieth century failed because its media was effective at transmitting from few to many but did not allow the many to respond. This put a large amount of the power into producers of media because through tactics like wording, estate tax to death tax, and creating needs they were able to influence the many.
The twenty first century could change back to the equilibrium through the internet. Like a couple of speakers in Tedtalks said, the internet allows not only few to transmit information to many but it allows them to respond and converse to each other allowing many to many. This takes power away from just the producers gives it to the consumers maintaining balance in our society.

[Amy Mund]

In the simplest terms, I believe Pope Pius XII is worried about an information overload that could cripple a society. As the strength of the techniques of communication expand, it is possible to reach an almost unlimited audience. Through mediums like a blog or Facebook, people can communicate to a large audience very quickly and easily. Sometimes people talk just to hear their own voice, or so they saying goes. The same concept applies to all other forms of communication which can become a problem when false information can be spread to 500 million people with the click of a button. Then think about all the advertisements (the number of companies advertising and the many different way each company advertises itself) that each individual comes into contact with each day. Unless the capacity of the individual's own reaction to this bombardment of information can handle the changing technology and the sheer amount of information can learn to cope, individuals may become overwhelmed and lose sight of what is important. This is what the pope was worried about - technology getting of ahead of the individual's ability to sort through the information to figure out what is real, or at least real to them.

[Katie Caffrey]

From what I understand, this quote is stating that as marketing and advertising becomes stronger and even more integrated into our culture, we as social participants and consumers need to grow stronger as well. We cannot let the media manipulate our reality completely or else reality will no longer exist. It is necessary to find a balance or else we will lose sight of what is reality and what is not, and once that is gone, it is impossible to get it back.

[Alora Killian]

I believe that the quote refers to how each group interprets and creates the message of media. The Pope says that we must find a balance between the strength of the message and the strength of the interpretation of the message. There cannot be an imbalance on either side. If the senders of the message increase the power of their message, the receivers will not be able to attach their own meaning, and therefore the freedom of the market will be controlled by those with the most brainwash-esque advertisement. However, there cannot be a over-analysis of every type of media for the receivers as a whole. This would be extremely chaotic, as no commercial or advertisement would apply to a majority of people, and would not be of any use. A happy medium between the two extremes is ideal, because there is a market for consumer goods but people still have a general freedom of choice.

[Klefsaae]

Facebook has indeed changed the way millions of people around the world communicate and stay in touch. With that said, I feel that this quote, although written over 60 years ago, can still be applied to today's world and facebook. Based on his quote, I feel that the strength of communication has "overpowered" the capacity of the individual's own reaction. The equilibrium between these two concepts is difficult to obtain, because of the boom in the ability to communicate to the outside world from a computer sitting in your lap. Maybe we aren't fully capable to fully comprehend all the information available to us, and thus inhibits our ability to react to it in a proper way?

[Apps 55753818692 1276800263 420dd17bdfba7c2073dcc6e3895de66e]

I think the Pope is correct. We live in a society today where mass media dictates much of the mass publics thoughts. Mainstream media has the ability to reach the masses, so whatever they decide to publish is what has the potential to shape public opinion. What the Pope's concern is, I think, is that people may have trouble filtering this information, taking it with a grain of salt, or formulating one's own opinion. Instead, media will shape opinion, taking away the variety of perspectives necessary for efficient society. Different perspectives allow society to expand and become more efficient, which is troublesome if mass media restrics this.

[Kabao Xiong]

In my opinion, this message emphasizes the importance of group and individual responsibility. As we are social beings, we need to have some form of communication to structure our daily interactions whether it is language, a code of ethics or technology (phone, internet, TV). Communication is vital in stabilizing the present and progressing towards the future but there is a responsibility to regulate it. In many countries, the government has taken this responsibility to oversee the use of communication however this statement addresses the individual. The responsibility to moderate communication depends on the people as much, if not more, as it is up to the government. I feel like while the government can exert control over the use of communication, ultimately it’s the people, the mass, that can influence each other. Maybe I’m being idealistic of human capacity, and we really can’t help but become victims of an excess of overpowering communication (technology). Maybe the responsibility isn’t up to our own sense of resistance.
I agree that this statement ask for a balance between finding improved ways of communication and how we chose to utilize these new forms of communication to attend our wants/needs. When there is no balance, one side tips over. Society collapses. In such a scenario, there can be large numbers of emerging techniques to communication that overpowers the people or there can be individuals who takes advantage of communication techniques for self-benefit. Either option doesn’t really maintain the quality of life (however you define that).

[Kaiya Hoyer-Leitzel]

"It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of modern society and the stability of its inner life depend in large part on the maintenance of an equilibrium between the strength of the techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual's own reaction."

I agree with this quote. Recently lives are more focused around technology and what it can do for us, meaning how it can keep us connected to all the different aspects of our lives. Facebook is a popular choice that society is making and it is a useful tool in this way. If right now, facebook suddenly crashed and there was no way of reviving it, the general masses would have an out break and there would be chaos because people wouldn't know what to turn to to keep the connection that they had with everybody and everything alive. Facebook was/is their medium. Or if for some really odd reason, humans started evolving to a certain degree to where they were not capable of understanding the language of today, their communication capacity would immensely decrease with those of the human race that weren't evolved in the same way they were.
It definitely takes a balance between the strength of techniques of communication and the capacity of an individual's reaction to ensure a non-chaotic future.

[Akoenig54]

It's quite intriguing to sit here and analyze a quote like this from a Pope such as Pius XII. I think that his quotation is far ahead of his time and it is interesting to see that a Pope considered by many to be "Hitler's Pope" was able to so clearly predict the conflict between emerging media and the Catholic Church.
I think that Pius XII is calling for a good balance in your involvement with media. His papacy is warning us of the lingering danger that media possesses towards Catholicism, although he seems to admit the positives that stem from this ever expanding media culture. Like most things in life he is simply saying that it is good within moderation and that you need to exercise a limit on the powerful influence media has, but this should not stop you from taking full advantage of the plentiful benefits that media brings.

[Abby Benson]

Similar to many other responses, I believe that the pope is emphasizing the importance of balance in today’s society-a balance between what we observe in the media and how we react to it. I think it is important to not let the media consume us and to not become distracted by it. In order to maintain this equilibrium we as individuals must not get caught up in the media and be able to separate our personal lives from these media-involved lives we have created for ourselves through things such as Facebook. It is good for us to have a limit on our usage of media related things so we are able to function normally in a society that is not media dependant. For example, communicating with others in person rather than through technology. I think we’ve come to a point where it is so easy for us to send e-mails to one another that we don’t put forth the effort in going to see each other in person, creating a whole different form of relationship. We also may feel more confident to speak what we honestly feel in e-mails or other forms of electronic communication because we don’t have to meet face-to-face and risk embarrassment or potential awkwardness. As long as we can maintain a balance so that the media does not consume us, we can be successful in our society.