Media has taken over our generation in enormously different ways. J.D Applen addresses the media takeover in his piece “Writing for the Web : Composing, Coding, and Constructing Web Sites”. He introduces Marshall McLuhan’s idea that “the medium is the message”. The cellphone example stood out to me because it clearly shows how the media has affected our lives. When giving someone your phone number you are essentially giving unlimited access to yourself. By doing so, this can make us get easily distracted or always speaking to someone. This affects your privacy and your attention span. This butterfly affects impacts us as writers.
A personal example I have related to the medium being the message is the use of TikTok. TikTok was not a social media platform I grew up using. I began using TikTok my first year of College and since then my attention span has declined. Constant short videos and instant gratification has reduced my attention span, making it harder to focus on long shows/movies. Also, It is harder for me to do homework or write for long periods of time. This platform creates the message that the shorter something is, the easier it is to understand or absorb. Having platforms that promote these messages take away from our ability to do work long-term. It also makes us struggle with being able to focus on one thing for a while.
Circling back Applen says, “we do not read as deeply as we used to; instead, we skip from URL to URL.” Because we are able to access so much information on platforms like Google or other websites, information becomes less valuable. When the internet didn’t exist, people would put in the effort to find readings that could relate to their work. We no longer focus on one reading because hundreds of shorter options offer quicker access to more information and details. After reading this section, it is apparent to me that I need to work on getting my focus back. By doing so this will strengthen my attention span and help me as a writer.
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