Making History

       Clay Shirky's How Social Media Can Make History video, which discusses the various ways in which social media is creating a new technological path, is an interesting look at the impact social media has, is, and will continue to have on politics, the news, global disasters, and interconnecting with each other. His statement, "When technology gets boring it gets interesting," is a phrase that I had never heard before, but it makes sense. We have such incredible and constant technological advances, that we can oftentimes become less creative and complacent with our expressive selves. When the new eventually wears off from innovative concepts, society begins to find their creative niches and avenues into which they can break new ground. For example, people in China used their cell phones, which almost everyone had, to shed light on the tragic earthquake and its political aftermath that was taking place in 2009. So many citizens had voices in the media that were normally silenced by their government. People got creative with their phones and used them to teach the world events in real time. It was revolutionary.

         Tim Carmody's article 10 Reading Revolutions before E-Books reaffirms the idea that technology has to get somewhat boring before it can really take off, by describing that the printing press wasn't an immediate slam dunk in the beginning of its conception. He expresses an attitude such as, "This is incredible that we can produce manuscripts without copying them by hand, but now what?" Carmody explains that in the beginning there wasn't an obvious market for individuals that wished to purchase books, even those that were literate. He argues that it was a messy time early on in the Print Revolution. Once the new had worn off and enough time had passed, cultures realized it could unite "fragmented communities," and begin to form a much more universal written form of language. As with most things, it can be successfully argued that although new technology may at first just provide us with bells and whistles, in the end, it can ultimately be the driving force behind reshaping our thinking and manner of existence.