| | Passive Communication is for Savage Cavemenlol, I wrote this during winter finals, and just found it when I was cleaning out my drawers... this is what my graphic design teacher gets for making me read Marshall McLuhan.
I'm in revolt against passive communication right now. The fact is that announcing to the world what I had for breakfast this morning isn't accomplishing anything, even if the world cared.
Two people can keep up with the minute details of each others lives on Xanga for years... and yet not really know each other at all. It's communication on the level of tuning into today's soap opera episode.
Passive communication is great for communication ideas, visions and positions to the world. But personal communication doesn't really exist unless it is active. The very definition of passive communication prevents it from being personal.
Facebook, while perhaps less "personal" according to some, is more conducive to active communication. You can still broadcast your breakfast choice to the world using Notes, of course. But wall posts and messages and distinctly to and from individuals–active communication.
Profiles allow for a sort of very succinct update of the basic details of a persons life as conversation starters. So if Jane Brown changes her favorite breakfast food from french toast to fruity pebbles, we can immediately begin pleading with her to mend the error of her ways.
Marshall McLuhan, while incapable of composing a comprehendible sentence (I'm still trying to make sense out of "The electric light is pure information") puts passiveness on the same list as savage and cavemen. Interestingly, it also includes the visual and sporadic, two of today's favorite things. Which goes to show that maybe the man wasn't entirely mad, and should be quite alarming to the rest of civilization.
Yes, thanks to the Geico commercials, we all know cavemen aren't stupid. But there you have it: more than you ever wanted to know about why i haven't updated my Xanga lately, and a little media theory on the side.
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| | Posted 5/28/2007 12:40 AM - 105 views - 0 comments
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