Week 6: My Activity and Passivity in using communication technologies

This requires another personal viewpoint. I think two sections are asked for.
Firstly passivity; do I just sort of sit back and get modern communication injected into my brain (a la Frankfurt School).
I must admit I consider the Frankfurt school of thought still applicable. Think about it, advertising of products everywhere. I am guilty of falling prey to the mass media advertising machine. There was a time when I would never buy no-name brand products. Bird’s Eye, Kraft, Fountain tomato sauce etc. The same with clothing – especially when Levis jeans became popular. I would only buy Adidas trainers and Billabong T-shirts. Yes, a victim of society, whether I liked it or not.
Secondly - activity. Modern media offers me much more choice in what I choose to view; TV or internet in my case. I watch little programmed TV (say, about 5 hours per week). In my case I watch DVD’s I hire from the video shop much more, preferring the asynchronitical approach. Far exceeding the time spent watching TV is time spent on my PC. Uni studies take up a fair amount of that nowadays but even before that I spent lots of time on my PC, with it becoming a necessary part of my life. I feel active in the sense that I feel I have control in the choices I make in what I do. This ‘activity’ also comes at a price, a price I am willing to pay. The lessening of a face to face social life has been replaced with communicating with people overseas. I feel that I am far more socially active now that I would be without a PC. The hours and money I have spent ‘investing’ in new communication forms has paid returns for me. I feel I am empowered more, have gained more knowledge in fields I am interested in as well being able to communicate with like minded people. The online work exercise in cultural production in my case holds true in many ways, except to find out about that you will have to read my blog.