I just finished a semester of teaching Writing for the Media at a local college. I have been teaching this class for several years now and media has changed drastically (or rather, social media has changed) since I first started with a seated course to 20+ students around 5 years ago now.
I teach online students only now and much has changed both during the course of this class and in my lifetime. Here are some of the biggest changes:
1. Well, the computer, of course. The typewriter I took to college let me see 5 words before they were typed. Now, we type directly into the world wide web and people can see it instantly.
2. Digital Cameras – We currently use the older Minolta lens my husband bought back in college but the body is a Sony a65 and it is digital, of course, because the addiction to instant gratification is too alluring to pass up. Digital cameras reduce a LOT of waste!
3. News stations make news from who is sharing on social media or not.
4. The pound sign (#) has been given a whole new meaning – #hashtagthatbaby You can talk online and at the same join bigger conversations using a simple hashtag. The whole new media world is about interconnectivity and interaction. If you simply pushing out information, you aren’t with the times any more and you will be ignored.
5. The “@” symbol has also given a new meaning too. You are suddenly “at”-ing everyone to get their attention. Forget picking up the phone – just @yourfriends on Facebook or Twitter or message or text them.
6. Car phones went through a brief time of being integrated into the car until cell phones came along. Now cell phones integrate with the car again.
7. Spiders crawling the web have nothing to do with arachnids and sticky white webbing.
8. I can’t find newspaper for a bonfire because no one I know gets the paper anymore.
9. Citizen journalism AND personal expression is now a global phenomenon.
10. Ahh, the smartphone – need I say more?
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