The Links Don't Mean Anything

So I am to write a blog about a few random words that might work well together in a sentence. I don't believe that anyone can do a word's definition justice by just grouping it with other words under a giant theme without the use of examples. Thus, I will select a few words that we've discussed in class today and run through them with an overlaying topic in mind.

MEDIA is a plural form of the word “medium”, and the general sense of the word here is the broadcasting of information and ideas. The modern example of the word that comes to mind is the digital media known as the Internet. Indeed, the Internet is the greatest media that anyone has to offer with the ability to allocate information and ideas to anywhere around the world almost instantly unless you're still on dial-up. Even now, this blog is acting as a digital media, transferring my thoughts to your eyes in the form of text through the Internet. Almost anything including audio and other visuals can just as easily be mediated through the Internet short of tasting and touching. But hey, at least there's always music, porn, and World of Warcraft.

NETWORK is very similar to the word “media” in the sense that it also relates to connections between people and that it shares the second letter “e”. Whereas the world wide web would also act as a decent example for a network, I find that a more precise definition of a network might come from Facebook or MySpace. Both sites act as a social network that connects people through Internet as a media based on friendship, interests, location, or any other topic aside from being Amish. However, Facebook seems to be more of a system of transactions than a network, seeing as how people are allowed to send digital plants, eggs, or even gifts to others in their network. I wouldn't be surprised if people would be able to send STDs through Facebook one day. Because these sites use the Internet as a media, they are extremely open networks and are hardly limited to anyone. This is a problem that MySpace typically encounters as people are often networked to others that they don't want any connection to. However, those who evaluate their own worth via the number of networked people on their MySpace probably have bigger problems than having an on-line stalker.

TECHNOLOGY is the genesis of the Internet, and thus accelerates the availability of media and networking. In the current day, the word “technology” is used to describe a technical advancement; thus, I can think of no better example than mankind's ultimate technological achievement: the Rockstar energy drink. Let's face it, any creation that allows me to type up a 584 word post at 2 o'clock in the morning must be the greatest form of technology in the world. Technology is an ever changing creature, affecting the forms of media and networking as it evolves. Technological advancements are always appearing, such as the invention of Cable Internet or Sugar Free Rockstar. Unfortunately, along with those advancements come technological falters, such as the creation of nuclear arms and Rockstar Cola. Nevertheless, as technology advances, even the definitions of “media” and “network” can be affected. Who knows what would happen if technology advances to the point where we can combine Rockstar Cola with Facebook and World of Warcraft? Perhaps the head of every computer nerd would explode, and it would taste awful.