Can the digital revolution really be the scapegoat for the impending apocalypse? Is new media going to be the cannibal of books and cinema? Is the end of the world going to be due to technology?
While reading, Toward an Aesthetics of Transition by Thorburn and Jenkins, these questions were brought to mind. Although, I do not agree that the digital era is a dystopia, I agree that there is panic surrounding new media. However, the panic is not coming from the millennials. Millennials are the generation who regard behaviors like tweeting, texting, Facebooking, etc. not as astonishing innovations, but as everyday parts of life. Those under the age of 30 adapt and welcome the change of books to Kindles and CDs to mp3s. The panic that millenials do feel is the pressure to buy the new iPhone5 when they have a perfectly functioning iPhone4, just to not be ‘left behind.’ For this generation the idea of media convergence to a single end point is exciting. Having one piece of technology that serves as a computer, phone, television, video recorder, camera, textbook, etc. means ten less things to keep track of. The millenials, much like the aesthetics of transition, recognize that each mediums’ original functions are adapted and absorbed by newer media, mutating themselves into new cultural niches and new purposes.
The doomsayers who see the digital revolution as an apocalypse answered ‘yes’ to the questions above. They are part of the generations that did not grow up with a computer, much less a color television in their house. When these generations see their millennial children/grandchildren socialize through instant messenger, cordless phones, and AOL homepages and in a matter of years to texting, facetime, and Google +, they are astonished at the easy adaption to new technologies. Who can blame their confusion? For example, my mom’s first computer was my first computer—she was 42 and I was 10. It is always hard to play catch-up, when you were already late in the game (Sorry Grandma, if you have not used a computer once in your past 91 years of life, there is no way you can comprehend why I am getting my masters in interactive media). But, an important point Thorburn and Jenkins make, is that new media is not a revolution, it is evolution. The media transition is a mix of tradition and innovation, and the language will endure from one new medium to the next.
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