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Essay / The Future of Mass Media
The Future of Mass Media in Our SocietyThe Internet is taking over our society in ways we never thought possible ten years ago , even five years. I know that personally, I would not have passed half of the classes I took in high school without my access to the Internet. Technology is growing rapidly in our world and I predict that future generations will rely on the Internet even more than we do now. In what way has the Internet become this crutch that the world's population needs to integrate into society? The rise of social media, the idea of a global village, and the rise of Internet streaming sites have all helped to create a huge reservoir of information and entertainment on the Internet. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay As a member of the youngest generation in class, my generation and now gradually older generations get their media from the Internet. The rise of social media has made finding and receiving media extremely and often forced. As part of our group project, we looked at how Facebook has become a never-ending reservoir of media. It's almost impossible to escape the current election by scrolling through your Facebook feed. If I were to scroll through my Facebook feed right now, I would see at least four or five posts talking about Trump. On the right side of the Facebook window, there is now even a place where you can check current trends and learn all about celebrity news as well as current world events. Facebook isn't the only type of social network that pushes media to consumers. Media like Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, and sometimes, but not as often, Instagram shove all media down the throat of the average internet user. A few years ago, we didn't have social media apps like Snapchat, Tumblr, and Twitter. In fact, the term “social media” wasn’t even a made-up term. This growth of the Wide Web through applications other than a simple web browser will continue to grow as we see a wave of media hitting audiences in new ways. For the group project, I talked about the current election. The current elections have changed the way the media is received. In 2008, when Obama was elected, I remember sitting in eighth grade English class and watching the inauguration on television. Live streaming from the internet didn't even exist in 2008. In 2012, an article was published on the BBC website about what live streaming was. Until then, people weren't entirely sure what live streaming was or what it meant. Now anyone, in any country in the world, can go online and live stream whatever is being broadcast, whether it's a news story or just a live feed of kittens playing with wool. Anyone in the world can live stream from anywhere, as long as they have access to the internet. The invention of smartphones made accessing the internet easier and everything can be found in your jeans pocket. As we saw with Marshall McLuhan, the world is becoming a global village. We are all connected to each other via the Internet and each of us has access to the same information, entertainment and forms of communication. This idea of a global village will only grow and expand; becoming more and more evident over time. Many points were raised in class on Wednesday when each of us presented the topics of ourfinal project. A few people from the younger generation, including myself, have expressed the fact that we meet people on the Internet with whom we would never have talked about our lives otherwise. I have several friends abroad who I have never met in person and have only called via Skype. I've never seen some of them other than photos on their Facebook pages. The current elections are an example of this global village predicted by McLuhan. Ask anyone in the world who has access to the Internet and they will know exactly who Donald Trump is. Media has become something that we can all access and I have no doubt that this will continue to grow. The Internet is going to get so big that we will soon have devices we can carry around to make sure we are always actively connected. At present we have the Apple watch which has become the beginning of wearable technology through which people can always be connected to the internet and the pixelated world which we currently consider as a fantasy which will become our reality very soon. In fact, it has already started to become our reality. Many people believe that everything we see on the Internet is true. I can go to a website like WebMD and look up the symptoms of a cold I had. WebMD can very easily mislead me into believing that I am dying because I have the same symptoms of a fatal illness. Besides McLuhan's global village, we also see the idea of the hypodermic model coming into play heavily in this rise of Internet addiction. The Internet is the perfect example of the hypodermic model. We have access to all types of media at our fingertips. With news channels, you always have to wait to hear the story you want. They constantly announce that the debate will take place at 5 p.m. and then you find yourself going through six articles before seeing the one you want. On the internet, we can hear about a certain story and then instantly do a quick Google search to find it in real time. This method of media consumption is much more satisfying for the user. Instead of having to wait for what we want, we can get what we want when we want it. I'm afraid this will lead to a decline in the human population in the area of patience. With the ability to access things instantly, our ability to wait and learn patience will in turn diminish. The growing success and popularity of the Internet has the major cable companies shaking their heads. People don't want to pay for cable services anymore because of services like Hulu and Netflix. As a result, cable companies that also operate the Internet, such as Verizon or Comcast, have slowed down consumers' Internet speeds, because Netflix does not want to pay fees and because Netflix now accepts all of its consumers. I think in the future we won't even have cable. The future will bring the Internet into our living rooms through our televisions rather than our computers. We will be able to pay for what we want and not worry about what we don't want. This will make watching and paying for TV much simpler. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The internet will eventually take care of everything. There will be no television like today. There will be no more newspapers. Any device that can access the Internet will replace all other forms of receiving information and other types of media. The Internet is our ultimate future. Many good things will come out of this internet-powered world. We will all be connected in.