Connecting the Past and Future

Over the course of history new technologies have changed our society.  As discussed by Rettberg in chapter two of his book, the invention of the printed word increased literacy in society from 20-30 percent to 70-90 percent in nearly less than 200 years.  Now we have evolved from the printed word to digital text and while at the time the printed word allowed for so many more people to access texts, the internet and more specifically blogs have the ability to reach an exponentially larger number of people.

Along with the increased literacy the printing press brought to society, it also brought an increase in an isolationist mentality among people.  Since people no longer needed to listen to someone read literature aloud and they could silently read text on their own, there was less reason to gather in public.  Plato feared this occurrence for he believed discussing oratory in public was essential to society and literature only made people forgetful.

The internet and blogging has certainly opened new windows whiles closing others after its invention.  Although the public forum has become more private, blogging allows everyone with internet access to communicate at all times with the entire world.

When blogging, it is important to understand the best way reach out to viewers. Mark Granovetter came up with a theory called the "social network theory" that states rather than maintaining strong ties with limited acquaintances it is better to find weak ties with many people because that is how new opportunities present themselves.

From the early limitations of creating and finding texts to the easy access of writing and viewing a blog, society has developed and changed exponentially in just a few hundred years.    



Discussion Questions to Ponder:

1) With all the modern technology we posses, would Plato be able to give any merit to resources like blogging even though the interaction isn't face to face?

2) Are weak ties in the social network theory really that valuable considering the fact that your acquaintance may not know you well enough to try to help you.?