homework 1

One of the many benefits that people take advantage of through technology is the ability to share their experiences with their peers almost instantly and from almost anywhere. Every website and cellphone app update is designed around making this sharing experience easier and easier. This is why people are more accustomed to sharing their personally significant photographs and videos on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Public media sharing also connects people to live events happening all over the world by removing the need to be there. It’s easier now than ever to receive news and information the second it happens through the Internet, there’s no longer any excuse for being ignorant to the world around you. You can view the recorded video of a presidential speech in live time or see a photo of your newborn nephew only moments he left the womb. When there’s a natural disaster or large event, there will almost always be a phone-recorded video posted somewhere on the internet for all to see.

Since today’s generation has an array of different media outlets at their immediate disposal, they also have the most knowledge about all the different ways to use the Internet. 20 years ago the idea of a portable cell phone was regarded as ridiculous to the public, no one could have predicted the rapid succession of social media outlets and cellphone advancements that characterize our society today. Everything from television, film, music, videogames, and popular culture has shaped and is shaped by today’s generation in the way they think, create, and share media. Teenagers and young adults have already had years of looking at brightly lit screens to see their favorite TV shows, movies, friend’s messages, YouTube Videos, Snapchats, and the week’s latest meme. Today, children today are starting even earlier in this retinal ‘training’ with a larger amount of learning websites, television shows, and interactive developmental devices available to them. My one-year-old niece is already familiar with how to maneuver an iPhone. So I think it’s definitely fair to say that this generation has a different ‘virtual reality’ than our predecessors.

Going on Panera’s comment on how “non-contemporary cinema, just like a simple painting in a museum, bores many of these young people, because it lacks sufficient information to keep their eyes and minds occupied or entertained”, implies that he believes that younger generations are incapable of grasping the historical significance of art throughout the ages that came before them. That being said I don’t believe that it is a museum’s ‘job’ to ‘entertain’ people. There’s a difference between an art exhibit in a museum and a gallery. More than anything I believe it’s a museum’s ‘job’ to hold a record of the past and provide the public with the opportunity to learn about the history of any topic, including art. Now that isn’t to say that the arts aren’t meant to entertain. Almost every form of art is meant for some type of audience. However, he flow in which contemporary art is lead is heavily influenced on ‘the next big thing’, so if an artist is hoping to attraction the attention of a younger audience, they need to use what younger people are used to and enjoy watching. One also has to take into consideration the range of interests and creative drive young people in the creative arts have. These days, young artist will most likely begin to create the type of art they don’t see in the market yet, instead of just waiting for something they can consume. Thank being said, with the different ways there are to make art, music, or film, this generation has more than enough means to be able to entertain themselves.  

Now going back on the topic of the use of technology in our own personal lives, I can both agree and disagree with Panera’s claims of something’s ‘proof of existence’ lies solely in its digital documentation. The digital documentation of something allows one to immortalize that event, image, moments, etc., for all of time. The event obviously still existed in real life, but ever since people have had the ability to give it a digital presence, they’ve done it almost religiously. Although it’s true that it’s becoming easier and easier to edit certain images in order to achieve a certain ‘reality’, but I believe that making something digital does not necessarily remove its credibility.  Panera’s claim that the human memory is becoming more and more and fragile is a bit complicated. Yes, it is true that our minds have become more and more accustomed to digital media and it has become custom to upload as much as we can onto a digital surface as we can; but I believe that’s only because having a digital presence creates something that the human mind cannot accomplish. The human mind is not physically able to recall its memories with the crystal clear image of what a digital photograph can. Not every detail is as accurate as we believe it to be, the brain fills in all the holes in our memory as required. Where Panera is coming from is understandable enough, we live in an age where we have more power than ever to create the images and ‘reality’ we want. Everything we consume visually has the possibility of being fabricated or altered from its original form.  It begins to get difficult to trust the things you see in the digital world. He also claims that digital media is controlled on a larger scale, beyond the control of the regular person. I believe there are different approaches to the use of digital media, whether it is in art or for personal use, it’s really for the user to decide.