Probing into Internet Culture as New Media Essay

Probing into Internet Culture as New Media - Essay Example Our first question is whether newer forms of technology seek to belittle traditional fields and disciplines. In this respect, we talk of how Plato in his book Phaedrus stood staunchly against writing, as a new form of technology. From here we continue analyzing how computers and the internet, an integral aspect of the phenomenon of new technology and an advance over writing and printing, manipulate the human thought process. The study will be based on how technological advances have faced stiff reaction from the time of Plato. While Plato voiced his reaction against writing as a technological advance over the traditional tool of oration, modern writers criticize the effect of the internet, as an advance over writing, on human memory. Our essay will comprise of a thorough analysis of the boons and curses of the internet on human life today. We will make significant probings into past and present research including literary sources on 'internet culture' to see how it dominates human thinking. We will analyze the literary and online resources to understand the workings of the internet as an aspect of modern technology. Here, we try to see how advances towards technology had been regarded as a social contagion from ancient times. Plato, the classical Greek philosopher, argued in favor of the 'superiority of the spoken word' over writing as a new technology, which had a detrimental effect on human memory. Those who received partial information without instruction remained mostly ignorant. The philosopher debated in his book Phaedrus, through the words of Socrates, about the 'myth of the invention of writing', which often resulted in forgetfulness and the loss of memory. (Plato, Hackforth 156-159). Writing is described as a pastime instead of 'serious business' and importance is given to dialectics, which is ingrained in the souls of men. (Plato writes on the dangers of writing, 2006). Now the question is what Plato would have thought about the internet (Plato's complaint, 2000) Plato's reaction against writing probably anticipated the modern day response towards the computer and the internet. Plato believed that writing isolated man from society. Likewise, computers are perceived as mediums of separating man from social gatherings. Writing is an integral part of our lives. We do not see it as a product of modern technology. Modern tools such as pen, paper, ink and paints are used in case of writing. Writing undermined the power of the word centuries ago. Computers, a technological advance over writing are perceived in the same light now. (Ong, 77-94). Walter Ong specified that, writing or other artificial modes of technology had an enhancing effect on the human mind. He asserted that alienation from society, which writing provided, was required for enhancing the conscious. Writing and computers, he said was the most effective way of technologizing the word. After the word is technologized, the technological means cannot be criticized. Arguments, however, counteract the aforementioned stance about technology. We will mainly focus on how the technological boom, which has swept many a nation, the world over, has a debilitating effect on the brain and human memory. The internet is an encyclopedia, offering