Assignment #3
It was the Spring of 2004...
Going through the webpages of previous students, it was interesting to see the vast differences between the popular media consumed back in 2004 vs. now. However, though the actual formats of a particular media have evolved, what remained consistent was the use of said media in general.
Why this class? For similar reasons as my classmates, students from 2004 said that the main reason they were taking this class to broaden their knowledge about the impact of media in society, focusing on acquiring a holistic understanding of humans and technology.
Television/Entertainment: The majority of students listed TV shows shared with current students such as news broadcasts, reality TV, comedy shows like Family Guy and Seinfeld. The most obvious difference was the lack of including any form streaming services or video sharing sites like Youtube - both of which were prominently mentioned by my classmates. This is representative that the “old” media format of tv shows just being on the television has now become accessible on-demand with sites like Netflix or Hulu. It was interesting to see that news was much more commonly mentioned by students of the past vs. my classmates. I believe that this is due to the fact that not very many of my classmates watch traditional news media strictly on a TV. Instead, we consume it on sites such as Youtube or via social media and online articles.
Internet: It’s funny that students in 2004 made the “internet” it’s own category. Contrast that to my classmates where everything of the “internet” was dispersed among all categories whether it be music, TV, and messaging - working off the assumption that “Of course it’s from the internet! No need to put it as its own category”. A fair amount of past students put Google, whereas no mention of just Google itself could be found among my peers; a sign of how the use of Google is nothing noteworthy to us nowadays.
Audio/Music: The radio and the use of MP3/iPod players was mentioned by past students. A few of my classmates mentioned using CD’s still, but more prominently, included music streaming services like Spotify. Current students also included media such as podcasts and audiobooks, none of which were included in the 2004 students webpages. Again, this highlights the current accessibility of such things available to us now that wasn’t available or as popular back then.
Communication/Social Media: The most prominent difference when past students were listing their communication was the separation of phones as landlines and cellular. Almost never mentioned (let alone used by us) is the landline phone. Not only, but the use of both was kept to phone (“personal”) calls, completely detached from any form of messaging/texting. Unsurprisingly, the inclusion of landline phones can’t be found anywhere in my classmates websites. Back then, most messaging was regulated to the internet (MSN, Yahoo) due to messaging apps such as iMessage or GroupMe being unavailable on cell phones. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that actually calling up people to chat today is significantly less common than just shooting a text - indicating a shift in the use of phones from then to now.
Video Games: The mention of video games found in past students webpages was far and few between compared to my classmates. If included, most games were just kept to basic web-browser based games such as Solitaire or online poker. However, a few past students and current students shared the use of video game consoles, albeit different consoles. My classmates shared several different games from varying platforms. This indicates the rise in popularity and accessibility of video games today, whether it be on PC, console, or mobile.