Anthony Marciano
CMM 240 A – Spring ‘22
2/15/2022
QCQ for “Small Change”
Quotation (with page number or parag number or time stamp if video/audio)
“The marvels of communication technology in the present have produced a false consciousness about the past–even a sense that communication has no history, or had nothing of importance to consider before the days of television and the internet”.
Comment (250-500 words)
This quote has some merit and proof but feels derogatory against the younger generations and those who weren’t born before the internet existed. That’s a personal connection I instantly found, as I was born in the early 2000s and have used the internet for my entire life. However, I also respect the history of certain things and I disagree with the notion that we take the internet for granted. It’s also simply untrue to say that my generation has forgotten any history that doesn’t have the internet involved. This quote makes it seem like my generation is ignorant and spoiled by the blessing that is the internet and technology like we haven’t truly lived laboring like in the past. However as humans, we are intelligent and therefore will advance as time progresses, so this quote is very one-sided. In a more literal sense, what about historians that literally study history as a profession using the internet to archive files? That is a real-world example that can help to debunk this statement. We will never become dependent on technology or the internet, yet this passage seems to communicate just that regarding the younger generation. The creation of the internet was important but we will never just forget what happened before it because there was no internet. History is history to track out advancements for a reason, and the time before the internet even had revolutionary technology at the time. Internet, web communication and technology doesn’t encompass our skills and jobs, it simply makes us more efficient communicators. It’s in essence a tool to help us spread information, and while it can be seen as a shortcut by those who lived without it, it was created for a reason.
Question
If the internet was never created, would we come up with some other way to communicate information quickly as soon? (Cell phones, etc.)
