‘New’ so much better than ‘old’ don’t you think. Or is it?
So this week I’ve been trying to capture the actual terms, and hence have an informed social analysis, about the social and cultural consequences of digital technology.
‘New media’ as a turn of phrase seemed to provide the right level for what I have been researching and analysing as the promotion of interactivity and connections between individuals across well ‘new media’.
These interactions are at a pace and for the most part informalised level and style, that is part of what I am formulising as a form of social pushing. So ‘Pushing’ in that you feel compelled to join up and be a part of networks of links, and to be seen to be responsive and ‘popular’ within those networks. By this I do not mean ‘popular’ in the sense of MySpace ‘friend’ whoreness, but rather a popularity focused on the significance of your place and role within ‘that’ network of links.
You might only have 5 friends on Facebook, 10 Twitter followers and 2 mobile phone numbers that you are in regular communication, but you remain the essential pivot in such connections and that is a significant social consequence. So back to ‘new’ again. What is occuring (at a rate of knots) are inherently interactive (and addictive) ‘demands’ that drive these links and means that the user experience is one that is participatory, culturally immersed and socially integrated as part of a tipping point of a ‘new’ sociabilty.
An important element of this ‘tipping point’ is the integration of new terms of language (so we can talk about it!), together with the development of new social practices and new research contexts in order as a way to grips with the prominence of new digital media.
Oh ‘new’ you were providing such a handy little catch all, or so I thought!
So let’s back-track to give some context, the term ‘new media’ itself came into notoriety when the 1990s .dotcom boom mania reached its peak and well then boomed. So one of the problems with the ‘newness’ of ‘new’ is that it holds implicit that all ‘other’ media is now ‘dead’ or has at least been replaced and is therefore of little consequence.
In a way this is a case overlooking what Miss Shirley Bassey sang as ‘…it’s all just a little bit of history repeating’ as what appears ‘new’ has its roots in what has gone before. She was onto something that Miss Bassey, as ‘new media’ contains the repetitions and add-on’s of previous media that are very much of relevance today. Web 2.0 being the classic example, there could not be open-source and intuitive navigation without the rather clunky point and click of Web 1.0.
Talking with the social theorist Scott Lash, he recently referred to the notion of a ‘new’ new media. Whilst this may seem an extra extraordinariness what he drew attention to was the compulsion that ‘newness’ forges. A compulsion that forces recognition of new and emergent sociabilities that are taking place when attached, ‘tethered’ and immersed to and within such new, new media.
And so I’ve come full circle to conclude that ‘new’ is a useful term. I might be over-using it though, but that’s nothing new…
Anon, ’social media-scape’, yep thats a ‘maz hardey’ original and refers to something else that i have had published at the M/C (media and culture) journal
http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0703/09-hardey.php
you might enjoy, its more about the identification of a specific user group who i refer to as the ‘iGeneration’-but wikipedia now have an entry on ‘them’ too, so they must be ‘real’! or at least socially significant!
glad you enjoyed the posting!
A thought rather than a comment – but we do have a very USA/West view of new. For example, does Facebook work in languages other than US English?
‘Social mediascape’ love the term. Not heard it before is that an original?
Haha Katie, sounds like youre trying to handle life in a digitally immersive social-scape ! manging those relationships that are part of the same digital social mileu against those that are not…
dont be afraid! your group of networked ‘friends’ and relative is going to get bigger, BUT so their saviness shall become better too, so less stress on your own time in terms of how to and when to stay connected, one day we shall all be a part of the same social media -scape… of course in the meantime its still quite nice htat not all your family are on Facebook! phew!
I got into things web at Warwick Uni in 1989. I remember my housemate who was doing a computing course showing me this new (as it then was) thing and saying even I should be able to use it. Implication being a girl can’t handle DOS (which was right!) and had a tricky relationship with Windows. Remember the modem and that whirring noise that indicated ‘something down the wire’ ? Netscape (whatever happened to that) was new (that word) and shiny. This was a limitation as once on a Uni workstation things flowed and clicking away made sense – unlike the slow crawl of the modem. Think where this is going is that techie things have speeded up the digital flows to a torrent so the graphical user interfaces make sense and we can use it at home as well. Then there is a new generation of phones. The ‘killer app’ then might be the ‘speed of the wire’ over which everything flows. I also remember the struggles with good old style BT and the slow path to the adoption of digital exchanges and broadband in the UK compared with e.g. the US or come to that OZ (thou this had its own odd telecoms set up). Does this make my life better? Well the PC does not crash and I know what my brother is up to on his Gap year as he logs into MySpace. Email move across the screen instead of the desk and people know if you have not looked at one. Oh love my new Nokia…So yes but the obligation to feedback takes up more time and I fear to think what would happen if I had a bigger group of wired up relatives!
dear ‘anon’
‘detached analytical view’ haha i do try! i’ll get posting on the next one in such a detached vain for you too!
Great post. An aspect of the whole W2.0 thing is ’spin’. Like the 1990s with the dot.com thing everything ‘new’ got hyped regardless of quality. Why I like your take is that you have a detached – analytical – view. Looking forward to the next…
Anon, ‘New Rav’ i’m having bad 80s and early 90s flash backs now – not good for a sunday morning! haha
Great comment Improbulus!, if only ‘new’ were really ‘new’ in such cases as far as politics goes!
Perhaps ‘new ‘ really means ‘old’ in such contexts, or ‘we’re trying to hoodwink you and sound snazzy’…
oh ‘new’ how old you sound suddenly…
*sigh*
Weren’t the Boomtown Rats new wave? Geldof new ? There’s a thought!
And of course there was “New” Labour.
New is still the new new!