Writing on the Wall: Social Media The First Two Thousand Years Part 1
Tom Standage’s book titled Writing on the Wall: Social Media- The First Two Thousand Years, discusses the history of social media, dating as far back as the Roman times. Standage shows how social media is not a new concept brought about by growing technology, but instead has been around for many years.
Standage starts by discussing the need for humans to be social and to share information among each other. He describes how a group of primates grooming each other is their form of social interaction. Standage then goes on to discuss the social interactions of the Ancient Roman civilization using papyrus to write letters and share with others. One of the main letter writers is Cicero. His letters to his friend Atticus are a collection of data and how they communicated. Cicero wrote every day, often times just for the sake of writing. Standage compares this to today and how people post on Twitter daily often times with no reason and just for the sake of posting. Cicero’s need for connection is similar to today's society and our need for connection.
Standage continues with Martin Luther and the Reformation. During which the print press came about and changed the way information was created and shared. Luther benefited from the printing press since his 95 Theses were copied several times and shared with anyone and everyone. With the printing press allowing Martin Luther to reach people all over, his work gave people something to relate to and allowed them to share their thoughts with one another. This can be compared to Facebook, or similar, where people post their thoughts or opinions and where they can be shared among several people. Another important aspect of Martin Luther and his 95 Theses is that they were a direct attack on the Catholic Church, and Luther wanted the church to understand his concerns and explain themselves. We have seen this happen today with our Presidential Election this past fall. People were able to question the candidates and demand answers from them. It also allowed for people to really share their thoughts and opinions on our candidates and it became an open discussion for anyone to see or join in on.
Another social media example Standage discusses is the coffeehouse. In a coffeehouse people would gather to read, share and discuss the pamphlets and newspapers, then they would send them to other coffeehouses by mail for further discussion. Coffeehouses were great because it was open to all social classes and it was almost expected that people from different social classes would mix to share and discuss what they read.
Things change quickly in the 19th century and continue into the 20th century. Before people were eager for social interaction by sharing and discussing, but the introduction of mass media, the newspaper, radio, and TV changed the way people interacted with information. Standage points out that now there is a small group of people producing and sharing information to large amounts of people (audience). This mass media influence opened the door to control of information being shared and censorship. One example Standage mentions is the German radio, that only broadcasted local news from Germany, and basically the listeners were only able to hear about Hitler and his ideas.
The internet is what Standage credits as bringing social media back to the public. The rapid use and spread of the internet have brought our need for information sharing back to a full circle. Standage points out that the problems we are facing today with social networking, are similar if not exact to the same problems that they faced during the early days of social media. People then were worried about the youth being distracted by the coffeehouse discussions and people today are worried about our youth being distracted by Twitter, Facebook etc. He wants people to understand how social media back then provided an environment where innovation took place by allowing people to connect and collaborate with each other and how we need to do the same with social media today. Through this detailed history of social media by Tom Standage, we are able to see how social media is not a new concept, thanks to technology, but rather a concept that is facilitated by technology.
Standage starts by discussing the need for humans to be social and to share information among each other. He describes how a group of primates grooming each other is their form of social interaction. Standage then goes on to discuss the social interactions of the Ancient Roman civilization using papyrus to write letters and share with others. One of the main letter writers is Cicero. His letters to his friend Atticus are a collection of data and how they communicated. Cicero wrote every day, often times just for the sake of writing. Standage compares this to today and how people post on Twitter daily often times with no reason and just for the sake of posting. Cicero’s need for connection is similar to today's society and our need for connection.
Standage continues with Martin Luther and the Reformation. During which the print press came about and changed the way information was created and shared. Luther benefited from the printing press since his 95 Theses were copied several times and shared with anyone and everyone. With the printing press allowing Martin Luther to reach people all over, his work gave people something to relate to and allowed them to share their thoughts with one another. This can be compared to Facebook, or similar, where people post their thoughts or opinions and where they can be shared among several people. Another important aspect of Martin Luther and his 95 Theses is that they were a direct attack on the Catholic Church, and Luther wanted the church to understand his concerns and explain themselves. We have seen this happen today with our Presidential Election this past fall. People were able to question the candidates and demand answers from them. It also allowed for people to really share their thoughts and opinions on our candidates and it became an open discussion for anyone to see or join in on.
Another social media example Standage discusses is the coffeehouse. In a coffeehouse people would gather to read, share and discuss the pamphlets and newspapers, then they would send them to other coffeehouses by mail for further discussion. Coffeehouses were great because it was open to all social classes and it was almost expected that people from different social classes would mix to share and discuss what they read.
Things change quickly in the 19th century and continue into the 20th century. Before people were eager for social interaction by sharing and discussing, but the introduction of mass media, the newspaper, radio, and TV changed the way people interacted with information. Standage points out that now there is a small group of people producing and sharing information to large amounts of people (audience). This mass media influence opened the door to control of information being shared and censorship. One example Standage mentions is the German radio, that only broadcasted local news from Germany, and basically the listeners were only able to hear about Hitler and his ideas.
The internet is what Standage credits as bringing social media back to the public. The rapid use and spread of the internet have brought our need for information sharing back to a full circle. Standage points out that the problems we are facing today with social networking, are similar if not exact to the same problems that they faced during the early days of social media. People then were worried about the youth being distracted by the coffeehouse discussions and people today are worried about our youth being distracted by Twitter, Facebook etc. He wants people to understand how social media back then provided an environment where innovation took place by allowing people to connect and collaborate with each other and how we need to do the same with social media today. Through this detailed history of social media by Tom Standage, we are able to see how social media is not a new concept, thanks to technology, but rather a concept that is facilitated by technology.
Did you feel like his definition of social media and your definition matched up as you read? This was the struggle for me as a reader of Standage's book. To me, it seemed he was trying to make a case for something I wasn't convinced of.
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