ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON WESTERN CULTURE
Every new technology and invention brings along a promise ofrevolutionizing some area of our lives. Electromagnetism and similar otherelectronic technologies have however not only made a promise, they actuallykept it too. The changes that has resulted from these technologies havetruly revolutionized the way we do everything from communicating tocommuting, from reading and writing to listening and perceiving, almosteverything has changed dramatically so much so that the entire westernculture is undergoing a swift transformation. Every new technology containswithin it some social, economic and political properties. The seriousnessor gravity of these properties depends on the extent of the technology'sinfluence. The greater the impact, the more inflammatory the technologybecomes. This is because with new technology, certain areas are likely tobe affected. With a technology, which had wider range of influence, it isonly natural that it would spark wider and more intense debate. This isexactly what happened when television, telegraph and now the Internet cameElectronic revolution refers to the changes that electronic media such astelevision, radio and now the Internet have introduced i
In short it isresponsible for major transformation of our culture and society. It was seen more as a medium of entertainment than anything else,but over the years we have realized that television wasn't such a harmlessbox after all. Pessimists see the same revolution as leading to a world of isolatedindividuals dealing impersonally with remote corporations, with a vanishingtax base, and where trust, community and face-to-face social interactionfade to join the penny-farthing and the dodo. Such changes occur because everymedium brings along a message and while we believe that message is moreimportant, Marshall McLuhan thought it was the medium, which was morepowerful than the message itself. Marshall believed that man learns more from theextent and scope of a medium than from the contents that it carries. Thisrevolution has significantly influenced our perceptions of the past, ouridea of the future and our understanding of the present. The reason we believe electronic revolution has indeed revolutionized ourlives and had seriously influenced our culture is because we notice howfast various technologies spread their wings and become part of ourreality. Secondly, we must rememberthat it is impossible to assess the influence of electronic revolution onwestern culture because the revolution is not yet complete. The extent and scope is therefore important because we are not asinterested in the contents as we are in the way that medium develops andinteracts with the whole world. Some of the most seriousconcerns come from researchers studying "social capital". Electronic technologies of the past and present have aroused mixedsentiments in people as we begin to notice that both their negative andpositive impact on our culture. The content and uses of such media are asdiverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Forexample television is important today because it no longer provides onlyprovincial coverage but takes us to various parts of the world and bringsus information from corners that we would have never otherwise visited.
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