Outside Reading #4(Mediated)--Meredith Elliott

For my Persuasion class, I had to read a book titled Mediated written by Thomas Zengotita. This book talks about the affects media has on our society. While we went over it in class it really was scary to think about how much our society depends on media to get by. Just over one hundred years ago (which really doesn’t seem like too long) these forms of technology that we receive different forms of mediation through were unheard of. Even though we look back and think “how in the world did these people live this way”, at the time there was simply no other way to get by.
Zengotita stresses how postmodernism is seen as a “blob”. The “blog” originated from the traditional scary movies where a blob of this goo-type stuff takes over an entire city. There is little difference in the old movie definition of the “blob” and the postmodernism “blob” rather that the blob is no longer physical and rather is imaginary. The “blob” stands for the media that is slowly, but surely taking over our lives and we fall victims easily to such a thing. The idea that everything and everyone is so media based is so frightening. It is obvious that we live in a very technology obsessed society and I don’t think people think about the consequences of our own very actions. There are some positive outcomes to living in a mediated culture, but to think about the job loss due to the industrial revolution it is also a very negative thing. Even the economic situation we are in is in a sense a result of the media and advertisement making people want these bigger things that they simply cannot afford. Just looking back to my childhood when my dad had this huge bag phone in his car for work in comparison to the new phones today. Everything seems to be smaller and yet more expensive. How does this work and how will this impact our world in the long run? It is a very terrifying subject that nobody really knows the answer to. Personally, I like to just put it at the back of my mind and try to forget.