It all comes together (Middle Media Exam)

It’s obvious that the media has been around since the beginning of time. From the earliest forms of block printing to the first newspapers, the media has always had great influence on our lives. Like our world, the media evolves and changes to fit our new wants and needs. There is a point in time, however, where the media started to evolve at an exponential rate. This constant evolving helped rocket the media to the forefront of technological revolution.

            When the Roman Empire began to fall, and we moved into the dark ages, technology and media advancement came to a halt. There was corruption in the church, society started to crumble, and the standards of life were less than ideal. All these factors demoted the idea of technological evolution. Society eventually pulls it’s self together and moves into a new period of time, the Renaissance. Due to the availability of paper and movable type, information was spreading like wildfire. Technology and Media was back in the limelight. At this point, our society began to innovate and propel ourselves into the future. To aid this advancement, a new movement took place during the Age of Enlightenment. Society began to reform its self through knowledge and reason rather than through faith alone. Enlightenment encouraged scientific advancement, which in the process, allowed the media and technology to grow at a rapid rate.

            So society gets back on track. We start to move through the years and get up to our present day life. Through the course, many innovations and new inventions were added to our collection of technology. But if we were to take a look at this list, there are five inventions that really stick out. These inventions are the radio, the television, the personal computer, print, and film. These five inventions hit us with media from every angle possible. The radio transfers media through air waves and hits us through audio. Film gave us the power to record and gives us visuals. Print portrays information through written word. Television was the first step to bringing all these factors together and really changed the way we look at entertainment. Finally the Personal Computer gave us control and simplified life. As it evolved, the PC has brought the five key inventions all together. The power of the internet and our virtual life has almost rendered these inventions obsolete. While all these inventions had major influence and still impact our media today, they are not as powerful when separate as they used to be.

            Let’s take a look at our technology and media today as if it were a body. The inventions are the body parts responsible for our senses. Print is our hands, used for writing and portraying our ideas. The radio is our mouth and our ears, responsible for hearing and speaking. Film and television go hand in hand and become our eyes. They give us the power to record, remember, witness, and enjoy. Finally, the personal computer is our brain, bringing all the senses together, giving us the power. Together we make the body which could be considered “The Cloud.” This cloud is what keeps everything running. Like our body, take something away, it can still function but something is missing.

            “The Cloud” is this idea of our entire virtual world. It holds everything and is, essentially, the smartest thing on this earth, filled with an infinite amount of knowledge.  It runs through the power of binary code. It can only be accessed through our newest technology, if looking at our body it’s our accessories such as glasses and hearing aids. These would include items such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, or anything else that has the power to do one thing; our accessories need to be able to connect to the internet, the key invention of technology and media today. The internet and “The Cloud” feed off each other. In essence, they are the same thing. It holds all the information of our society. It is used for work, play, entertainment, social interactions, navigating, and so much more. If this duo were to ever crash, our society would go into chaos. Virtually everything that runs on power is connected to “The Cloud” through binary code. If it were to crash we would enter another dark age.

            From the Dark Ages to the Age of Enlightenment, technology and the media have gone through a roller coaster of advancement. At times it grew rapidly, at other times it was put on halt. It gave way to the five key inventions of the media which eventually conglomerated to form “The Cloud,” run of the most important invention of our time, the internet. Our media is constantly evolving. The big question is what is next. Will “The Cloud” evolve into something else or will more be added to it. The only thing we need to watch out for is the crashing our dynamic duo, “The Cloud” and the internet. Society has always been moving forward, what happens if we are forced to press reverse? What happens if we enter a second Dark Age?