I don't know about "destroying," but certainly "transforming."
A lot of people are saying it's just a medium. But media DO transform societies. The advent of writing and books completely changes a society where previously all story telling and transfer of information had to happen orally. The telegraph and telephone created ways that linked people over what had been massive barriers of distance. The radio caused people to completely change their home life, as leisure-time activities came to be scheduled around broadcast times - previously the clock only ruled the workplace. Television brought vivid images from faraway wars right into your living room, and the format encouraged the quick jump-cut from one item to another in a rapid-fire, disjointed fashion. You can easily tell the difference between early television writing, that feels like a stage play but filmed by a camera, where the writers were trained for theater, and later writing, where clearly the writers were themselves raised on TV.
The internet changes everything, in a way we haven't seen since maybe the printing press. It eliminates gatekeepers - the threshold of entry is so low, EVERYONE can "publish" their ideas, pictures, stories, songs, if they want to. I have a blog, and stuff on soundcloud myself, for instance. There's infinitely more out there, available for most anyone to access. But by the same token, we're also flooded with an excess of content, so as consumers of media, we get much more power to select what we want. So you can get "echo chambers," where everyone's intake is customized to their existing tastes and prejudices and it's very easy to screen out whatever you don't want - and thereby opt out of listening to perspectives or creations that the former gatekeepers would have deemed important for everyone to know.
A source of information or opinion or entertainment that would have been marginal - and perhaps rightfully so - can become central to a person. And that person, who might otherwise themselves have been marginalized and isolated, can connect online to other persons and thus form a virtual community, a social force that otherwise might never have coalesced.
More constructively (or maybe that was constructively), it often strikes me how social media can indeed do what it's promised to do, which is to allow people to sustain and cultivate relationships in situations where they otherwise would have faded. It has revived my contact with old school and college friends that I had not heard from in years. When our family moved across country, kids were able to stay in touch with their old friends. When I was their age, that would only have happened if both friends were diligent letter writers.
A lot of people are saying it's just a medium. But media DO transform societies. The advent of writing and books completely changes a society where previously all story telling and transfer of information had to happen orally. The telegraph and telephone created ways that linked people over what had been massive barriers of distance. The radio caused people to completely change their home life, as leisure-time activities came to be scheduled around broadcast times - previously the clock only ruled the workplace. Television brought vivid images from faraway wars right into your living room, and the format encouraged the quick jump-cut from one item to another in a rapid-fire, disjointed fashion. You can easily tell the difference between early television writing, that feels like a stage play but filmed by a camera, where the writers were trained for theater, and later writing, where clearly the writers were themselves raised on TV.
The internet changes everything, in a way we haven't seen since maybe the printing press. It eliminates gatekeepers - the threshold of entry is so low, EVERYONE can "publish" their ideas, pictures, stories, songs, if they want to. I have a blog, and stuff on soundcloud myself, for instance. There's infinitely more out there, available for most anyone to access. But by the same token, we're also flooded with an excess of content, so as consumers of media, we get much more power to select what we want. So you can get "echo chambers," where everyone's intake is customized to their existing tastes and prejudices and it's very easy to screen out whatever you don't want - and thereby opt out of listening to perspectives or creations that the former gatekeepers would have deemed important for everyone to know.
A source of information or opinion or entertainment that would have been marginal - and perhaps rightfully so - can become central to a person. And that person, who might otherwise themselves have been marginalized and isolated, can connect online to other persons and thus form a virtual community, a social force that otherwise might never have coalesced.
More constructively (or maybe that was constructively), it often strikes me how social media can indeed do what it's promised to do, which is to allow people to sustain and cultivate relationships in situations where they otherwise would have faded. It has revived my contact with old school and college friends that I had not heard from in years. When our family moved across country, kids were able to stay in touch with their old friends. When I was their age, that would only have happened if both friends were diligent letter writers.
. Anybody can be made to say anything... or react however someone wants them to, to anything... and while it hasn't started becoming a mainstream thing yet, I'm near certain it will.
