Answer the Question: How is New Media Changing My Life?

[student’s name] [professor’s name] [course] [date] How is New Media Changing My Life?             Depending on who you ask, new media can refer to anything digital, or to the actual way information is organized today. Because of the prevalence of technology and the internet, perhaps it would be so much easier to define what NOT new media is. While we may not be able to define what new media is, we do know that it has a profound effect on the three most important dimensions of society – economics, politics, and communications. It offers “limitless possibility for communication, for innovation, and education” (Socha and Eber-Schmid). It has changed the way we conduct our day-to-day life, in ways that seemed impossible before.             What makes up new media? The New Media Institute says that only “basic tenets that can help us get a better positive understanding of what New Media is beyond what New Media isn’t” (Socha and Eber-Schmid). In New Media, data is nested as opposed to the linear organization of traditional media. Through this nesting characteristic, presentation of information takes precedence over context. Each element stands alone, so that a user can actually understand a photograph without reading the entire article, or simple quotations can relay to the user what an entire blog is all about. This nesting capability is enabled by hyper linking, which connects related documents together so that users can immediately check out related data which just a press of a button. Perhaps one characteristic that is unique to New Media is its capacity to “[overwrite] traditional relationships in exchange for new ones” (Socha and Eber-Schmid). Companies can respond directly to their clients and the average person can engage in political discourse without leaving their homes. People can have new friends and business contacts without attending an event! “What this signals is twofold: not only does new media enable the average person to engage in political, cultural, social, and economic action, but it also suggests that old-style reporting and data outlets are secondary and not primary sources for many. New media is an enabler and the new primary source” (Socha and Eber-Schmid). In my own life, I have seen how New Media has encroached on the traditional sources of information in the economics, politics and culture. First, let us consider the realm of economics. Once upon a time, I spend my Saturday afternoons in a shopping mall, where I could try new clothing (which I have no intention to buy in the first place), or test drive new gadgets (before I realize that I had no funds to purchase the one that I liked the most). Then, I bought items from real people, and actually got to bring them home on the same day. Today, I still spend an entire day shopping, but it is nothing like before. I shop in Costco, Target, or Walmart showering, or leaving my home. Some days, it is great, but other days, it isn’t. Often, I spend way beyond my budget because I don’t feel exhausted (the way I would if I walked the entire day to find a singl...