It’s often hard to realize just how much time that you actually spend skimming through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. What did you do when you were a kid? How did you spend an hour? I bet you were self-invested in a video game or a book, similar to how you are today.

Photo by Carly Garofalo

I constantly find myself skimming, especially through Facebook and Instagram, mainly because I have my own social media platform, @Handoff. The platform was designed to highlight the most interesting parts of NYC, without breaking the bank. Our platform specifically targets people who are trying to have a good time in New York, and explore different parts of the city they may never have even heard of. I am constantly surfing though social media to uncover the top trending, and most interesting parts of NYC per week. While doing so, I find that an hour only feels like minutes, and how so much of my time is wasted while searching through a digital realm. When I put what I do now into prospective, I cannot imagine how my platform would even exist.

Video from Handoff by Carly Garofalo

The only way that people learn about things prior to a social media age was through commercials via the radio and television, and through ad’s in the newspaper. Looking up pictures and hashtags and creating social videos would simply, not exist. These activities that I partake in specifically only exist because of digital media. I often laugh at people who do not simply understand social media, and the massive influence that it has over our society today. Most people find it “sad” or “pathetic” when they see people posting pictures of their food, but like myself, I understand that these people are taking advantage of a new market of advertising that didn’t exist before. Right now, businesses are able to take advantage of something called immaterial labor, where people simply do the advertising for the business with virtually no pay. People take pictures of the product, hashtag and attract a swarm of people who have just retweeted and shared, and have essentially just done the advertising for the business, for FREE.

Computerization and digitization improve human activity in a multitude of ways. The internet has become a platform in which people communicate socially and has, essentially, become a way of life for most people. Computerization has manifested in our lives, almost anyone you see nowadays has a smartphone, as well as also having a laptop or a tablet. We essentially cannot get through a day without using a computer-like device. We see digitization everyday when someone posts a photo, when they post a video or they share an article. It puts things into prospective when prior to a digital age, we would just simply be taking these pictures for our own enjoyment. We wouldn’t be sharing articles, we would be reading articles in the newspaper or magazine, the videos we would be seeing would be on TV. We definitely see digitization in current day, now more than ever.

Couldry, Introduction digital media and social theory

Couldry states in the article an apparent consequence of media. He brings up an interesting point, that even if it isn’t the smartphone or the tablet, years ago it was the news paper. There has always been something that has been stealing the attention of the consumer, and has made it’s mark on society.

“There is a long history of wonder at media’s role in transforming social scale. In the early twentieth century, it was the newspaper that astounded Gabriel Tarde: “even if the book made all who read it . . . feel their philological identity, it ws not concerned with questions both current and simultaneously exciting to everybody . . . it is the newspaper that fired national life, stirs up united movements of minds and wills” (Pg. 25 “On What Scale do Media Have Consequences?”)

The negative consequence of digitization and computerization is becoming way too reliant on devices and social media feeds. We expect that when we log onto Facebook, we are getting our fill of social media posts, as well as up to date articles about what is happening in our world. We often do not look beyond the platforms that are convenient for us, we often don’t research anything we find on Facebook because we expect it all to be there for us.

Overall, I do think that the digital revolution was a groundbreaking period for our generation, and I DO think that it has benefited us majorly. While we may have gotten too dependent on certain aspects of it, we have created a convenient and an ever-advancing part of our society. We are incredibly advanced as a species, and we are only getting smarter and more enhanced. Digital media is a fascinating part of our lives, and I feel that it is important to embrace it, rather than take it for granted.

Is this the peak of Digital Revolution? Or have we always been advancing in a Digital Revolution?

Are we better off as a species to be this connected and intertwined? Or was it better to have no external communication than face-to-face?