The Impact of New Technologies on the Real World - Essay Example

The Impact of New Technologies on the Real World The Impact of New Technologies on the Real World The advancement of technology through continual civilization has played a great deal in enhancing media contribution to people’s everyday life. This has progressed the way people think, creating better critical and creative thinkers. The adoption of non-representational thinking began in the early 1900’s due to the need for improved thinking styles that supersede earlier basic predominantly traditional thinking. Traditional thinking was one sided, constrained by geographical differences among people. Nonrepresentational theory sought to improve thinking by creating ‘open end’ and ‘in process’ thinking. Thrift notes that non-representational theory is not exactly a theory, rather a thinking style that incorporates many theories developed from a series of other theories among them being feminism, post-structuralism, pragmatism and phenomenologist’s theories (Creswell, 2008). This pluralism of these theories has helped provide the more elaborate non-representational thinking that accounts for the plural disposition. In current times, media and technology has helped improve to the more critical and creative thinking, overcoming the traditional geographically constrained way of thinking that Thrift tries to improve through the inception of the tenets of non-representational theory. Technology has improved the conduct of media and communication (Alvarado, Gutch, & Wollen, 1987, p. 70). Improvement in the way that information is disseminated to audiences plays a major role into better understanding of the surrounding, thus relevance of critical and creative thinking. The major attribute of media is the understanding environments, both local and international. Thrift’s theory of nonrepresentational thinking helps improve thinking, which is crucial to media and journalism advancement. This paper purports to explore the relevance of applying the tools Thrift offers in his nonrepresentational theory, illustrating their relevance in improving to creative and critical thinking in understanding the environment and offering examples of scenarios that the tenets apply in enhancing the role of media and understanding the environment through improved technology. Outline of the Seven Tenets of Non-Representational Theory The study of environment demands projected comprehension through open-eyed exploration of the spheres of social sciences that are political, economic, social, philosophical, geographical, artistic and scientific aspects (Kołakowski, 1976). Thrift’s tenets offer an elaborate teaching of critical evaluation of the aspects of space, time, philosophy and scientific aspects. This platform offers the researcher a strong background before venturing into the media world, giving vast knowledge to better understand the environment and making credible judgment in conducting their roles as agents of media facilitation. Thrift’s model of nonrepresentational theory has seven tenets that simply elevate thinking through a dynamic world. His principles “enliven through the ‘application of a series of procedures and techniques of expression’” (p.2). The first of Thrift’s tenet is “capture the on-flow of everyday life”. He explains that all kinds of movements are reflective social interaction. This theory tends to condemn radical empiricism of political representation. Nonrepresentational theory rejects cognitive propensity radical empiricism, representational of politics in identity, and obsession with disassembling textual meaning, instead emphasizing the power of pre cognitive as performing technology necessary for acclimatize living. It is a sensation instrument, play, and a force of life to fuel life’s excesses and rituals of daily living. The notion that Thrift puts forward tends to encourage his audience to carry out thorough assessment of the environment before making judgment. In media advancement, the student should make credible judgment of the environment in order to understand it in order to reach the relevant findings and conclusions. The researcher should make cognitive decisions based on the environmental changes that occur (Callinicos, 2010). Evaluation should be approached on nonjudgmental terms rather than judgmental. The dynamism in the world today accepts much technological advancement. Evidently, there are many ways that facilitate media streaming to audiences around the world. Some of these forms include agents such as the social interaction such as blogging, live streaming, television, radio signaling, and newspapers among others. One cannot simply disregard certain tools due to traditional thinking that lays bound by cultural beliefs. A journalist should accept the various forms of media coverage in order to reach the many destinations intended. The second tenet terms nonrepresentational theory as “resolutely anti-biographical and preindividual” (Thrift, 2008, p. 7). What Thrift tries to state is that one should not accept the artificial sense of wholeness and hermeneutic consistency, since it bases on the past rather than the present. This tenet, arguably, is the most incomprehensible of nonrepresentational theory’s principles. This is because he does not certify which of the biographical works he is trying to reprimand. This tenet, combined with the first, criticize procedural egoism. This misunderstanding does not however disregard the teaching in this theory. He tries to condemn modern post-structuralism in narrative investigation that tends to create individualistic attitudes. Journalism requires an indulgent attitude where one should mingle with the environment trying to comprehend open-mindedly from credible sources. Autobiographies tend to illustrate a one sided perspective of an individual while giving incomprehensive information to the journalist. Political environments may hinder the research process and in the end lead to contradictory findings (Smith, 2003, p. 13). When collecting data for disseminating to audiences, journalists should ensure to keep tabs on the information they present to others making sure that they report nonaligned to any special features from the information they collect. An instance would arise where a journalist is trying to report on presidential elections in a country. In cases where presidential petitions occur, the journalist has the responsibility to report ostensive based on the facts and ensure to gather data from nonpartisan sources. The third principle concerns itself with action, practice and performance. Researchers and theorists are exhausted of the heritage structural sciences. They disregard uncovering attempts directed to certain conclusion, while meaning sometimes is nonexistent at all. Journalism action should not be driven by a performative approach, but rather by a route headed towards humanistic rituals. Performative actions accommodate cognitive or talk attitudes. Life forms take different unprecedented shapes. What Thrift tries to put forward is that academic tendencies do not offer conclusive information; they give way to habitual interpretations that do not go in line with the dynamism technology offers in the current situations. Life takes course through the expressions of practical skills and movements, interaction with others, transitory encounters, consistent urges, precognitive set offs, sumptuous temperaments and day to day routines. This is the fuel that should drive journalism. Thrift shuns the traditional approach that demands one making endless efforts to uncover the truth about something while awaiting judgment and interpretation. The uncertainty in life requires openness and investigation. Technology is ever changing. The conception of the internet started in the early 1980’s (Albert, 1971). The innovation was unimaginable prior to this period, but now it is part of people’s everyday lives. One’s rejection to change simply makes them obsolete and unknowledgeable, thus making them unfit to render appropriate services in journalism. In order to conduct thorough research, one should cover all forms of information at their disposal. Currently, the internet provides extensive resources like journals, blogs, social media and others, which a researcher can use to collect sufficient data for compile satisfactory findings. The fourth principle of nonrepresentational theory dwells on “relational materialism”. The material objects, or rather the visual, are simple props that may hide the underlying truth. Human companions render material revelations and should therefore be awarded similar conceptualization and empiricism they warrant. Thrift (p.10) asserts that objects construct “technological anticonscious” with body’s nervous system. The objective of this principle aims at insisting the need to combine extensively sociality, materiality and corporeality. That concepts ascribed to materiality come from people not giving due regard for what they really are. He terms materiality as futile. However, materials play key roles in making movements that eventually lead to actions, thus giving rise to major attributes that a researcher can use to create credible findings. The mere notion that materials give conclusive answers renders their ultimate and objective use insatiable. The qualities that these objects elude can be of use to researchers. Looking merely at objects does not give credible answers but rather their actions are what researchers should look into (Garraghan, 1946, p. 148). Sometimes in research, some sources of information can be incredibly inappropriate. For instance, there are some Websites that merely attract clients by making false customer reviews’ to attract their inception into their business. Researching by merely looking at these sites could lead to researchers disseminating wrongful information. On the contrary, the researcher should engage further with the corporations ensuring that they interact in detail with other site visitors as well as with the company support. While this technology of the internet was not in use some few decades back, it has also led to impersonation and alterations. This is the wrong use of technology, and although there is little one can do to curb this, it is important to take heed while conducting research and dig deeper into the sources of information they are exposed to. The fifth tenet is the “experimental” principle. Constructive research is experimental in its restlessness and willfulness. A researcher should push limits to their end while working towards renewal. The traditional scientific understanding of research is conservative, witty and favors positivism. While collection of data in research demands impartiality, the traditional science does not clearly explore the deep lengths that nonrepresentational theory advocates for. The advancement of technology largely aids in the practice of research. Research largely depends on technology and it is up to researchers to exploit this global advancement. Technology has cut the geographical constraints that traditional research methods encountered in prior years. For instance, if someone is undertaking a research that demands them to provide financial reports of a company, they need not travel all the way to the company offices to get this information. They can simply contact the company offices to be submitted with this information. Alternatively, researchers can opt to look at the information from the company Websites. Technology has largely reduced the time constraint that existed prior to the current advancements. In his sixth tenet, thrift elaborates on the bodies’ importance. Bodies are not subjects for sociological experiential practices; they are engines that necessitate political renaissance, enhancing novel politics. Bodies tend to improve emotions. Emotions in this case are “properties, competencies, modalities, energies, attunements, arrangements and intensities of differing texture, temporality, velocity and spatiality, that act on bodies, are produced through bodies and transmitted by bodies” (Lorimer, 2008). The attention nonrepresentational theory awards emotion supersedes the human attribute. It surpasses to objects and lifeless matter such as technological advancement and events, among others. Nonrepresentational theorists hypothesize emotion as “an un-circumscribed force unbounded to a whole self and un-anchored in human subjectivity” (McCormack, 2006). Sometimes emotion does not cloud judgment; it just leads to better understanding of the facts. In conducting research, sometimes it depends on the emotion of the researcher to make credible conclusions. The seventh tenet Thrift advocates for “a particular form of boosting aliveness” (p. 14). It involves a jump to another world (p. 15). The Traditional existence would still be as irrelevant today if passed due to their being objective as opposed to the more relevant research method that we have today; of nonrepresentational theory of thinking. They objectify humans. Thrift emphasizes interaction between people as ‘core’ to good research. This relation has made way for today’s community gatherings that were traditional theories did not perpetrate for. These interactions gain favor by such attributes brought about by technology of social networking. The interaction on the social media is the most interactive form of socialization experience the world has ever experienced. The benchmark technology put for socialization is evident through various social interaction Websites like Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram, Google+ and WhatsApp, among others across the communication divide. Technology can now necessitate research that theorists can embrace in trying to improve to a third level form of thinking, in trying to understand the values of critical and creative thinking. Research demands a lot of critical and creative thinking in order to appreciate the value of technology as a medium of enhancing the role of media (Creswell, 2008). “Cinema Mediates the Past, Present and Future” (Harrington, 2011, p. 42) On the realization of cinemas, the world got the ability to secure its past, its present and its future. Through visual screening, there is better representation of what happened before individual existence, while securing the current proceedings and its eventual future. People can communicate the initial existence to future generation, creating a good base for research in future generations. Sometimes in research, advancement into greater evolutions of theories into more creative and critical thinking, then some record has to actualize for future researchers through cinema tools of research advancement. Through cinema, the ability to leave a trace of physical evidence to portray to future generations realizes actualization. The advancement of technology, through Skype and Video Streaming, has realized actualization. The ability to display images through projections also necessitates in creating better grounds for offering researches the best form of presentations to theorists. Heidegger states that technology consists of a certain degree of essence. This however, differs from the view of technology in machinery. This leads to the derivation of technology’s finest definition. He states that technology is an instrument “of being means to an end” (Gillespie, 1984, p. 148). This definition sparks basic discussion as to the essentiality of instruments to daily lives. However, the essentiality of instrumentality unrevealed, in this definition. The basic concept of non-essentiality of instrument in carrying out an action therefore begs the question as to whether technology is merely a facilitator or an integral component of something. The underlying answer to this question shows that technology brings forth other things. The level of technology back then is totally different from what the world is experiencing now. This underlying factor of instrumentality is not evident in earlier forms of technology, but its significance comes highly appreciated in present day life. Modern technology presentation is regarded as a resource; its effect to the philosophical environment has reserves whose effects will remain for an outstanding amount of time. It is not an object, but it consists of objects. Man is forced to retaliate to forces challenging him, thus the basic concept of challenging in Heidegger’s answers to the question of technology. The reactions of man to the forces that challenge him bring in the concept of enframing. He suggests that the essence of modern technology is simply essence. Other theorists like Ellul, Habermas and Borgmann have also tried to express their support for the theory’s view on the essentiality of technology. The main argument that Heidegger directs at is looking at technology not the instrument or tool that fuels, it is a facilitator towards the actualization of the goal of researching. In the current world of machinery, technological advancement has created opportunity for machinery construction through the advancement of physics courses. He discusses mediated environments and their involvement in the understanding of research in relation to media. He formulates the Fidelity-based approach especially on presence research that emphasizes that media increased interactivity, perceptual realistic, and the ability to become immersive, presence experiences becomes more realistic. In addition, he describes the cultural- ecological approach placing emphasis on the importance of action possibility in mediated environments, and also cultural framework role common in engendering presence sense. Media Space Theory Heidegger also illustrates how technology does not support the spirit of presence in any form. Being there is primarily a mind product and does not survive from the notion of being present. People rarely reflect on their presence in the world on a daily basis because there is little doubt of the visual world people experience. This concept also gives rise to the relationship between technology and space. In line with the appreciation of visual technological advancement in media streaming through various mediums such as broadcasting, virtual environments, teleoperation and cinematic visual displays, there was the creation of the “spatial dimensions” (Lackey, 1999, p. 329) also referred to as the theories of space. This theory purports to evaluate the various perceptions of inter-dimensional presence. This presence creates interplay in the existence of raw data which can be presentable through the mediums of media with cognitive procedures (Armstrong & Sperry, 1994, p. 36). There arises a cultural issue that whenever there is presence of the user’s media and user characteristics, that presence is an “illusion of nonmediation” (Lombard & Ditton, p. 16). When people disregard the presence of certain communication tools in the environment, then they are merely living in nonmediation illusions, where they fail to acknowledge the contribution that technology plays in improving the means of communication and eventual media facilitation. The intertwining of social and physical presence is referred to as co-presence. This merger sets the motion for viewing the presence of technology as an art form and its presence in the world being a medium that can impact livelihood positively through inventions that can foster the rules of research and media. Theory of Temporal Distance This theory looks at the various aspects that arise in the conceptualization of the different stages evident with the evolution of media through history in four different stages as depicted by McLuhan (p.77). The first stage started in the 1600’s and ended in the late 1800’s. During this period, the medium being used was mostly in written form in the most developed economies. This economic attribute meant that third world countries did not know the formal way of communication that was in written form as most people in these areas had not been exposed to reading and writing. These though have still been continued as means of relaying information (Shlomo, 1968). However, some other forms of communication in this low technology were discontinued are they became obsolete with the passage of time. Conclusion The adoption of non-representational thinking began in the early 1900’s due to the need for improved thinking styles that supersede earlier basic predominantly traditional thinking. Traditional thinking was one sided, constrained by geographical differences among people (Rocco, Hatcher, & Creswell, 2011). Nonrepresentational theory sought to improve thinking by creating ‘open end’ and ‘in process’ thinking, which also faced criticisms from other theorists such as Heidegger in trying to propel towards greater forms of critical and creative thinking in research and their adoption into media. These various depictions created in this paper reveal the relevance technological advancement has had on the practice of media, and how different theorists entangle in debates to aid the student create a flow of organized thoughts (Dewsbury, 2003, p. 1913). These should be carried into the media as it plays a key role in the production of concise critical thinking tools that aid in better understanding of media and journalism as a whole. Bibliography Thrift, N. 2007. Non-Representational Theory. London: Routledge. Lorimer, H., 2005; "Cultural geography: the business of being more-than-representational", Progress in Human Geography (29, 1). P. 83–94 Thrift, N. 2007. Non-representational theory: Space, Politics, Affect. London: Routledge Thrift, N. 1997. “The still point: expressive embodiment and dance. London: Routledge) pp 124–151 Smith, R. 2003. Baudrillards Nonrepresentational Theory: Burn The Signs and Journey without Maps: Environment and Planning the Society and Space. 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