Academic Blog Mk One: The anti-social media.

Basically for those who do tune in regularly, there will be one new segment placed on this blog due to it being a requirement for a Media subject. Simply, instead of making a new blog for my academic scrawlings I thought it would be much easier to host them on here. So expect a weekly installment....

To kick things off I thought I'd address a little statement that really interested me last Monday in class. When a correlation was made between the current habits of consuming food and consuming media. That both, which were a perhaps a family event (especially things like dinner) have become a more individualised or isolated activity. I can say that I rarely sit down and eat dinner together with my family...or any meal for that matter at home. In the same regard we also consume our media separately in different parts of the house. I never watch television in the living room, I do it on my own in my study.

What made intrigued by this is the issue of which was the byproduct of which. Was I in here because I didn't like eating with my family or because I didn't like the television they watched. Then something sprung to mind from a few years back when iPods where all the rage in the schoolyard. A Current Affair (or Today Tonight, I don't rightly remember which) ran a story about child psychologists suggesting that the new technology was causing anti-social behavior. That children during lunch time where just plugging in the headphones and not having any social interaction. I then initially blew it off as technophobia (which I still believe it is) but now I can see that it does have some validity. Well at least the concept that the consumption of media is become more isolated.

Now...I do believe that if I had no computer and only one television in the house I'd probably be watching it at dinner time. However I don't think being isolated in my study is such a bad thing. My family hasn't broken down, I'm fairly close to them and spend more time doing more meaningful things with them than watching Television.

So...I guess my point here is that while ACA might say that technology will cause us all to be anti-social I believe the opposite and that it can actually create more social interaction. providing we do actually get out of the study at some point.

So that's it first in this series...and stay tuned for my next non-academic blog on "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World".