Print culture affects our
day-to-day lives more than we think, and it has been that way for centuries. It
will continue to be that way, although in what form is up in the air. Although
back in the 1700s, viral was a little slower than what we think of now, the
print culture still brought about a war. Letters and pamphlets were published
in newspapers, and these newspapers travelled around the colonies at a fairly
fast pace. Fast for them, anyway. It still took a few months for news to
travel, but eventually it did, and these letters and pamphlets antagonized and
organized the colonists into a cohesive unit capable of bringing down the most
powerful country at that time. Now, online newspaper articles and pictures are
spread on the Internet at an astonishingly fast pace. The pamphlets and letters
are comparable to blogs and articles that go viral today. Things that go viral
today have the same impact that pamphlets and letters did back in colonial
times; articles that have inciting content encourage people to pick a side and
take action-either for or against the article. Political articles are the most
to go viral because people feel so strongly about the issue. Articles about
politics have the same power to bring about a war that pamphlets and letters
did before the Revolutionary War.
I think you make a really good comparison between how pamphlets were spread through society to how articles go viral today through social media. People definitely have strong opinions on political issues which definitely prompts more people to share it. I think its another good example of the fact that humans use gossip to learn things about their environment. They post their strongest opinions to see who agrees with them and who doesn't, therefore deciding who would be a good friend and who they don't want to hang out with because their interests and beliefs differ too much.
ReplyDeleteMary Clare,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assertion that pamphlets back then and articles today are similar by way of the spread of information. Although I would like to argue that they are not synonymous. You said that "things that go viral today have the same impact that pamphlets and letters did back in colonial times..." I think this can be true in some cases and I don't mean to rule out the idea completely, however I will argue that the call to action then seemed to have a larger impact on any political call to action now. (Think of the roughly 60% voting rate in the U.S.) That could simply be because our society has grown in population or even more probable is the lack of presence in today's social media. It is much easier to hide behind a pseudonym or screen name and "voice" and opinion than it was back then. Furthermore, the call to action is often to "like" a post or to use the hashtag _____ (fill in the blank there with #BlackLivesMatter or #CocksNotGlocks or even #ThanksObama). There's no real action involved there besides the action of clicking or typing, respectively. So I would have to respectfully disagree with your statement asserting that "articles about politics have the same power to bring about a war that pamphlets and letters did..." It's certainly possible for them to have the same power but I don't think it's as pervasive and omnipresent as the power of pamphlets in the later half of 18th century America.
We have all heard the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword" but in today's world "the pen" could almost be substituted with "the hashtag" or any number of phrases. The written (or typed) word has the ability to unite people for or against different causes, and that is becoming even more prevalent now as modern technology has allowed for the rapid travel of information. A recent event that comes to mind is the murder of several writers at the French Magazine Charlie Hebdo over an anti-Muslim cosmic strip. A great historical example is the one you mentioned, the Revolutionary War. The power of the word cannot be understated, especially not in this day and age where it can reach more people than ever before at a much faster rate.
ReplyDelete