Media Convergence

I don't remember the last time I spoke to my dad. He's a Naval Commander in Chicago, and I wish I could say that his profession is part of the reason why our communication has been minimal at best. But honestly, texting has been the only way our relationship has stabilized. He just learned how to utilize texting, and a few times a week I get a random picture of the elaborate dinner he's making for his new family or a new joke that makes me roll my eyes. Despite its less than ideal circumstance, texting is more than my dad and I have communicated than some times in our relationship. Technology essentially allowed a new source of communication for me and my father, since face-to-face and even talking failed to allow. I'm more relieved when I can just send a text rather than stress a conversation. So when I think of media convergence sometimes I get a little upset that I know I can win an argument through text rather than face-to-face, but at the same time, especially in the case of me and my dad, media convergence has definitely helped out relationships. I think it's the same thing with every situation-- there's the good and the bad, and how we utilize this new way of communication can determine what kind of generation we are. Of course there are going to be some abuses, but it can be used for good, too. This "second electronic media age" can definitely be taken as a negative, and admittedly I was seriously disappointed at how communication happens. I immediately thought of a time when I was at a journalism convention in Seattle- our theme to base our projects on was "Concrete Jungle". My classmates and I talked about how the natural beauty of life was being stripped away, and cities were taking over Florida's swamplands and orange groves. But if you think about it, the generation before us had their own issues on the "progression" of society. Construction is our disappointment, but it's happening, and maybe we are just so stuck in the past that we think it's how it's supposed to be- just like we think that Disney movies should have stayed in the era of Lion King, Aladin and Beauty & The Beast, not Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Finding an equilibrium in this change of social culture is harrowing, to say the least- but there are positives, and I hope that despite the weariness of the more philosophical community can find comfort in this new convergence.