#katescapade

Life in college is never easy, but the experience that you’ll be getting from it will help you grow and mold you into the person that is prepared to conquer the wonders of reality. It is a phase in your life where you’ll be meeting new people, and have the opportunity to know yourself better.

Be the witness of my growth as a writer. As I write about my experiences, learnings, and personal reflections about my course. Allow me to share some events and activities which I think is helping me grow as a writer, and as a student.

Becoming a Communication student, I am exposed to the wide array of mediums that are used in conveying messages. It could be through television, cellphone, radio, newspaper, and a lot more. Aside from those, we are also taught on how to maximize or use the aforesaid mediums. Writing in New Media is one of my major subjects right now and with this subject, we, students are being taught on how we navigate our way, write and deliver our message with the help of the new media. This course aims to expose the students with the techniques that are used in writing for new media.

What is New Media?

You might be wondering what “new media” is. Let’s cut to the chase and go directly to the point. New media is the digital technology around us that helps us get in touch or connected with one another regardless of the distance between the sender and receiver. It is a diverse medium composed of diverse audience that are being connected with the help of the internet. Therefore, the audiences in the new media doesn’t have to be located within a specific geographical location.

With the help of new media, it became easier for us to connect and continue with our work and academics during this pandemic. The new media made it possible for us to have our classes at the comfort of our own home. Aside from that, it gave businesses a chance to continue their works or even market their products or services with the help of the online platform. Based on an article by the Carrier Clinic (2019), there are three positive sides when it comes to our exposure to the new media: (1) anonymity, (2) 24/7 availability, and (3) No geographical limitations.

With the help of anonymity, people are able to share their personal problems and vent it to the public. I, myself, can relate to this and I, to be honest, find it therapeutic. Back in 2016, Tumblr became my diary. It is the platform that I use to vent or even rant about whatever that have happened to me. It is also the first thing that I update whenever there’s something good that happened to me. It was a phase where almost everyone was using Tumblr to share their personal dramas and curate a ‘blog’ that has a playlist on it. It was a time where people can confess their deep darkest secrets without getting canceled.

Knowing that people are 24/7 available, is both a blessing and a curse that we’ve been living by since this pandemic started. When the idea of having online classes and work-from-home set-up came, a lot of people forgot to set boundaries. They forgot to have their own personal space. All of a sudden, it was a chaos of events. You no longer have a sleeping pattern, you tend to focus more on your socials non-stop, you began sending emails or even work-related messages in the middle of the night. All of the happened because we thought that the availability of a person is now 24/7 since he/she is just at home.

I actually admire how times have changed and allowed us to communicate with no geographical limitations. As a daughter of someone who is always away from his family, having this limitless access is making it easier for me to connect with my father who is working abroad. Sending a life update or a simple how my day went allows him to witness and feel that he’s with us while we’re growing. We may not see each other physically, but the internet is making it possible for us to connect with each other. Having all these being said, we can say that the internet is making it possible for us to have a network society.

What is Network Society?

In simple terms, it is the process of sharing information within a social network that is made possible with the help of the internet and/or mobile devices. According to Castell, these social networks are efficient for us, humans, because it allows us to be complex, dynamic, and innovative. The evolution of this Network society allowed us to change social dynamics.

An example that I could think of where network society allowed us to change the dynamics of our society is the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This movement wasn’t just a street movement or rally that are composed of African Americans. It was a movement which first started on Twitter due to the death of George Floyd. It was known as a movement which first started as a worldwide trending hashtag. The death of Floyd was then followed by a series of racist acts among these law enforcers which therefore, triggered the majority to rally and use their voices to fight for the rights and lives of the black Americans.

Source: Teen Vogue

The opportunity that the network society have opened for us shall be used meaningfully. At the end of the day, our simple words, posts, or even hashtags could save or even change the lives of other people. As they say, use your platform to serve as a voice to those who are unheard.

For now, this would be the end of my first blog post. I am hoping that these basics will make it easier for you guys to understand my future writescapades. Get to know more about writing for new media and, of course, myself as I unravel more of my learnings, insights, and personal experiences with my next blog posts. Ciao!