Digital Natvies.

Visual culture has changed dramatically in the past forty years, as digital natives our generation doesn’t think about operating technology, it comes naturally. The time space compression generations of the past forty years have seen a huge development of technology, as the first handheld mobile phone was invented in 1973 and now-a-days we have the development of the iphone. The thunderbirds TV show is a prime example of how technology has advanced as it was seen to be completely insane that you would be able see someone on a small object portrayed by a compact mirror in the thunderbirds, where as in reality we now have video phone calls.

Technology has became so commercialised recently that people don’t care about the program, they only care about what’s on the back of the program, known as the ‘long tail’ therefore industries have invested more and more money into merchandise, which I think is madness, surely the merchandise can only be as good as the original product? But then again figures show that this method works as an episode of Doctor Who cost one million to make and made ten million in return.

It can be said that ‘the world just shifted’, the growth of technology is accelerating at greater speeds, which relates to Moore’s law. With this growth of technology the simple way of life has changed significantly. But I think this growth of technology can also hinder our lifestyle as well as benefit them, technology such as texts or Facebook messages can decrease people’s social skills, especially teenagers or young children. They feel the need to voice their opinions over Facebook or text, yet when you speak to them in person they have nothing to say. This technology can also allow for intense bullying, take a school student for example, bullying occurs during the school day but also when the day is over, so the bullying is prolonged over social networks like Facebook. But on the other hand technology has improved education significantly; a school in Lisburn is a perfect example of the benefits of advanced technology in schools, as each member of staff and the student were given iPads and results showed a huge increase in the level education at the school.

Texts and social network messages are destroying the art of conversation, they corrupt the natural way of life. In a postmodernism way of life we view ourselves as celebs having to post things on Facebook just to prove ourselves to others, regardless if statistics show that in reality you have 6.4% friends, and on Facebook you still communicate mostly with the same 6.4%, you still need to post things just for show, so that the other 3.6% know who you are, or who you are trying to be. So in reality is this digital revolution hindering or benefiting some aspects of our social economy? The space in which we live in is radical, it has a huge impact on our life but in order to understand this impact we must play with the space and learn more.