The here and Now

Alexis Tocqueville in his comprehensive study on American culture Democracy in America, asserted that one thing was certain of American culture; American art will always be mediocre. His basis for this was that where Europe had a rich patronage system to further artistic movements, without an aristocracy America could never achieve this. America has since revealed that not all great art movements require great monetary benefit to become regarded as fine art. The finest movements in American art history have been exemplified in the art of Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Frank Lloyd Wright. These artists were not motivated by what people were willing to pay them for; their concern was always in the creation, the reinvention of their medium, and often the fame that came with starting a revolution. It is through these concepts which I have an acceptance for the current trends in society. 

To the question should everyone be here the answer is no. While the internet allows for universal participation only the few truly excel. I would like to show this through two youtube videos which are both without a doubt of the mediocre genre. David after Dentist is a youtube video which has received over 65,000,000 hits and is by far one of the most memorable videos of the youtube generation. This however is all that can be said for the poster of this video they have posted many other videos but they all are about the same as the original or simply referential to the original. The second video I would like to make note of is Charlie the Unicorn which was created by a user named SecretAgentBob. Charlie the Unicorn was the seventh post made by this user and the fifth animated short posted by him. SecretAgentBob is a true example of why it is okay that everyone has this opportunity. He created a tremendously successful video and has a huge cult following of the videos he posts. Youtube is brilliant in that it has captured the very idea which Tocqueville thought would never be successful and that is media which everyone has access to. Some will thrive and some will flounder but gems are always being found amongst the rubble. This references McLuchan’s theories which signify that the message is captured within the medium. Charlie the unicorn is simple and silly but at the same time it is a video which will be enjoyed for many years to come. Similarly film has gone through this same transformation not every film is going to win an academy award but there will be movies the masses enjoy and films which simply die out

On a somewhat completely other hand the act of putting your opinion, view, or creative idea in the web may not have your desired result. There are many blogs which go un-read, many youtube posts which go unseen, and there are far too many websites to make anyone think that the website which they made is the best. At this point in time anyone can create a website, blog, youtube video, facebook, myspace, twitter account and I am sure the list goes on. If people have an opinion to make they can certainly make it but has that not always been the case. When I was much younger my dad would often take me to his job in Manhattan;u before arriving at his humble office in downtown we would pass through a subway terminal where waited us a man we called the prophet. The prophet was a homeless man who between the hours of 8-11 and 4-6 preached the most unbiblical and unmoral principles to everyday commuters. Now perhaps the prophet still preaches at his station but I would imagine anyone with his similar agenda who possessed the means of the internet could accomplish their same message and reach a much wider audience if they were to do it online. It is from this notion that one must recognize that a freer freedom of speech does not make a better democracy but rather infiltrates things which the government cannot control. Politically I cannot be more inclined towards less censorship in the means that have been addressed on television and radio but when it comes to internet I think many things are fair game. 

I certainly think that the future is going to be very different as a result of advances made in technology. Perhaps in the future teachers will ask their student to respond via facebook status in regards to their assigned reading but at the same time right now there is a tremendous disconnect between student and teacher. Children are growing up in a technological age with teachers who for the most part did not learn with the aid of a smart-phone, the internet, or a database. As a result teachers are giving out test which children can cheat on. Essays can be answered with a simple Google search. Sources can be found which make assignments far easier than they were before. As a result teachers need to affiliate themselves with all the resources on the web to better prepare their students/ be aware of what their students are doing. Academic studies are not going to fall by the wayside but teachers will need to play catch-up if they want to stay ahead of their classes. It is still possible to teach the classical theories or lessons by simply using media as a tool instead of admitting it is a easy way out.

Personally I love watching media develop I feel it is a constant precursor to social stages. After all many sociologists speculate that social norms are established first by the advancement of technology. From a personal perspective I feel you cannot hold technology back and the best you  can do is follow it and pass each stage of it down to you younger generations. When the oral tradition was lost, people speculate that people lost a lot of their capacity for memory. Similarly things will be lost with the advancement of technology but people will learn to assimilate and life will go on with a better understanding of what people value as long as social norms are based around technology