As we all know Facebook and Twitter have been a huge part of our lives. We all saw the impact these sources of social media had on Egypt, Libya and Osama. Recently, I attended Fareed Zakaria’s speech on his book, The Post American World, in which he spoke highly on the overall influential impact these outlets for social media. He talked about their immense impact on our future as a nation and as mankind, in general. We have to look at exactly how far we have come with this technology. Not even thirty years ago, we were stuck in the seemingly ‘Dark Ages’ of the internet and could only view photos if they were on the Television or in person. This drastic change in technologies has created a whole new need for our generation- this need is the necessity for instant visual stimulation. As soon as Osama was killed, one of the main arguments made was the need to release the photo of ‘The Body’ (Buffy plug). We want to have an accurate visual depiction of exactly what went down. We see evidence of this in the Counter Strike post earlier and also in the fact that Osama’s death has sparked preemptive ideas on the movie.
http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2011/05/03/Bin-Laden-hunt-film-already-in-works/UPI-85201304406000/
In this article it states that “Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and producer-screenwriter Mark Boal -- whose gritty Iraq war-on-terror film "The Hurt Locker" won six 2009 Academy Awards, including for best picture and director and screenplay -- plan to start shooting the suspense action thriller this summer.” I read that article only days after his death and it says “a ton” of movies similar to this will be attempted. I mean how dependent are we on visuals today that dozens of movies are being put into the works only moments after the man’s gruesome death. The sources of the internet, Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, and every other technological gadget we all own have made us all yearn for better visual stimulation in day to day life. Have we become too dependent on technology for information? Have we become obsessed with visualizations of gruesome materials? Or is this just what we as a generation has come to expect in our lives?
Wow, it's interesting Kathryn Bigelow & Mark Boal is writing a film on Osama's death. However, I'm just gonna have to come out and say I hated "The Hurt Locker." Honestly, I did not see what all the hype was about. It was too anti-climatic every time. I guess that's why it's so interesting, because it's so different from all other movies. I feel, however, Boal's style might actually be a good fit for this kind of movie. I don't know what drives us more for this kind of visualization though. Our dependence on technology that has caused this amount of hype surrounding Osama's death or simple bloodlust by Americans who feel they have been so wronged by a terrorist's actions.
ReplyDeleteI just want to comment on the impact of social media on specifically Osama bin Laden's death. Twitter truly is amazing. I was out at a concert on that Sunday night when bin Laden was murdered, and I was trying to kill time until the concert started by surfing the web on my Blackberry. Alas, the internet would not load up, so I decided instead to just play around on the Twitter app, an app I use on average of once every 3 months. Every single post was about Osama being dead. Without Twitter, I would not have been able to learn of the famed terrorist's death so quickly. Thanks Tweet Fam.
ReplyDeleteAs long as communications technology remains functional, I don't see how we could be too dependent on it. I think it's only possible to be too dependent on something if there's a chance that it could be taken away. I don't see how communications software and hardware could disappear though.
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