Reading Marshall McLuhan and Walter J. Ong got me thinking about media and how our culure is affected by how we communicate. Ong discusses the switch from a primarily oral/aural culture into a visual one aided by writing which was greeted with much hostility many centuries ago. The same thing is happening today with the conversion of communication into electronic forms.
Texting, IMing, Twittering, social networking, etc. are closely associated with my generation. We were the first ones to grow up with these devices, so we serve as a sort of mediator between the analog and the digital worlds. In essence, we're cyborgs.
One criticism of digital communication is that it alienates people--"kids spend too much time on the computer" or "texting isn't as 'real' as a phone call." Does it really? Or is this an alarmist reaction? Why are older people more hesitant to adopt new technologies?
I'd like for my final documentary to illustrate the culture of web-savy American teens and 20-somethings, and perhaps contrast it to the adolescence of their parents. Overall the theme is digital communication and how it affects our culture--more specifically, personal interactions.
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