Imagine if 10 years ago, somebody told you that you would soon
have the ability to access a vast network of media and information wherever you
are, streaming in high-definition right in the palm of your hand and able to be
retrieved with just a tap or swipe of the finger. Compared to the state of
technology back then, would this have seemed like a stretch of the imagination?
Would the ability to harness the power of the World Wide Web in a device
thinner than a wallet and faster than the latest notebook computer of that time
seem like science fiction?
Fast forward to the end of the decade, and science fiction has
become a reality. Technology has evolved at a whirlwind pace, and has had an
astounding impact on our media ecology. In fact, it could be argued that this
mobile revolution has created a new media ecology entirely. Never before have
we been able to access media in such a manner. These mobile devices are not merely
an upgrade from devices past, nor are they a niche product out of reach to all
but the most savvy, hip, or wealthy users; they have created an entirely new
mindset in which we access and share media, a mindset that continues to grow
while leaving behind the outdated modes of the past.
Certainly, this technology has already proven to be highly
beneficial in numerous ways. Obviously, the most important improvement of
mobile media is the ability to access content anywhere, anytime. No longer are
we tied down by wires and cables, no longer must we look for physical media
such as DVDs, books, or magazines. Smart phone in hand, we are able to watch
any number of movies, read any number of books, or check any number of scores,
all at our own leisure. We can do this on the bus, on a plane, at the doctor's
office, at a restaurant, etc. etc. And with the speed of today's wireless
connections, we can access this media just as quickly as on a traditional wired
connection. If anything, mobile media has expanded the boundaries of our media
ecology, like Magellan sailing uncharted waters.
With mobile media, we also have an increased ability to
personalize the content presented to us. It wouldn't do to think of a
smartphone as a media blender, pureeing all of the content in the world into one homogenous
form, or as a tossed salad with all of the ingredients thrown together and
mixed up, heterogeneous but hard to pick apart. Instead, a smartphone is more
like a vending machine whose contents are decided by us individually; we simply
push the button to dispense the media of our choice. We don't have to dig for
specific items like in a salad, we get to choose what ingredients are used and
how they are presented.
The app has become revolutionary in its ability to organize media
into tidy little squares, much like the buttons on a vending machine. We are
able to condense an entire genre of media into that little square, and arrange
those little squares on our screens in a manner that is most convenient to us.
We can place the most important ones on our home screen, hide the less
important ones, and choose to not even download the ones that we have no need
for. This level of personalization does not end there. Within the app we are
given even further options to customize the content to meet our needs. We can
choose which scores we want to see, which movies we want to be recommended, which headlines to be on the front page,
which cities' weather forecast we'd
like to view. We can adjust the frequency of updates or the way in which we are
notified of updates. And when we no longer need that app, we can easily remove
it as if it were never there.
In a way, mobile media has enabled us to become the masters of our
own media. It enables us to live within the same media ecology, but access it
through an individual lens. Mobile media does not just give us a longer leash,
it removes the leash entirely and gives us the freedom to access and explore
our media environment in ways that we could only imagine a decade ago. Mobile
media has given us freedom, and at the same time, it slowly tightens its grip
on our daily lives...
No comments:
Post a Comment