Blog Post 4- Nick Giunta
For this week's post, I will be talking about the midterm we just submitted as I enjoyed looking into the BeReal app as opposed to how they communicated in Ancient Greek Times. It was interesting to learn more about the Platonic critique of writing as Plato and Socrates believed writing was not an effective way of communication. At first, being a theorist I thought that they would enjoy writing but the biggest critique was there writing can be misunderstood and would lose its meaning. It was seen through their dialogue that face-to-face communication is the most effective way. I would be interested in hearing what they think about the new forms of communication as you do not need to be in the same room as another to have a conversation without delay. Back in Ancient times, they would have to write to each other and their conversations would take days if they were not close.
The new forms of communication continue to evolve, and apps like BeReal are the most popular app for iPhone which makes the various ways of interacting with each other endless. When the notification goes off, you have to take a picture of what you are doing at that exact time. Therefore, the pictures you take may not be ones you look "Instagram-ready" in or you may not be doing something "cool" to show your friends. This is why the people you have on BeReal are the ones you are ok with seeing these pictures. As we talked about in class and in the midterm, these people would be "good friends" (Dunbar) and friends that you are sharing an intimate connection with. By trusting these people, you are subconsciously closer to what you may not want others to see. This is how BeReal can bring you closer to your "good friends" and allow for real-time pictures to be posted so others can know what you are doing at that exact time.
This is how communication evolved from Ancient Greek times and I thought it was interesting how Plato and Socrates had to do it compared to how we do it now. I wonder what is next for the world of communication and social media.
Hi Nick!
ReplyDeleteI think it is ironic that Socrates was so against writing because if their dialogue was never written and accounted for, we most likely would not have had access to this information. To your point, I feel like Socrates and Plato would think communication forms like social media would be toxic and take away from genuine conversation, however, they maybe would have been intrigued by the convenience of fast communication.
I definitely believe that face-to-face communication can help communicate the message more efficiently given you are shown different social cues, ones that you cannot receive through texting for instance. Living in a society that has gravitated towards texting as a primary mode of communication, I truly believe there is way more of a possibility for miscommunication. Personally speaking, I know that I have misinterpreted the tone of a message which has led to a fight between a friend and I or something along those lines. Tone and body language are so crucial when trying to understand what you are being told and those luxuries are not present with texting or communicating through social media.
All things considered, I think different ways of communicating have their own flaws some more than others, but that does not mean they cannot be avoided or limited. I could not imagine living in a society that does not allow you to communicate quickly over vast distances but that was reality and they made it work.
Hello Nick, I also found the platonic argument about writing a very interesting topic specifically in comparison to modern social media apps such as BeReal. Even though there are so many forms of communication that we now use, part of me agrees with Plato in the way that face to face communication still feels like the most authentic, and effective means of communicating. Of course someone could argue that social media and online communication has brought the world closer together in the way that we are able to communicate with whoever, wherever, that it is efficient, and makes our lives easier. However, I believe that social media apps have made people too comfortable in accepting that online communication can be our primary form of communication. We are constantly viewing a very filtered and fake representation of our friends lives through our phones that 9/10 times does not contribute to any growth of our relationships. Be real does advertise itself to be this authentic app that is different from the others, though its very loose rules and restraints say otherwise. With that being said I do agree with Ashley who commented up above, I also could not imagine living in a society where I am not able to communicate to my friends at such a fast speed no matter how far apart we are. Finding a happy medium/a positive way to use social media and a way that benefits the relationships you have with others and yourself is in my mind what we should all be striving for.
ReplyDelete