By watching Michael Wesch’s Ted Talk as well as his YouTube video he is trying to demonstrate the limitations and issues that students have with the lecture hall setting, as well as the college life which can be stifling. The reason the video got the attention that it did was because of the true yet understated. I see this concern among many students as the elephant in the room, spoken about by disgruntled students craving more titillation, but never projected to the public. The common questions asked by students like “will this be on the test” “What’s the minimum number of words” doesn’t give us the chance to challenge ourselves and think critically, and not just critical thinking as a class, but critical thinking for the individual. He is explaining the potential in the students and in the technology to link people together and be proactive when it comes to the media or interacting socially and productively on a global scale. He links this back to media The system that’s in place now sends students though the government learning machine filling them with information like a jelly filled doughnut then shipped them out overstuffed with knowledge but nothing to do with it, no outlet to release it into. Which is why those same intelligent knowledge filled students idolize the political figures and TV hosts in the media. What they are assuming is that because the part of the media and are watched and respected by millions of people throughout the world, that they are somehow more informed than the student filled with knowledge. I believe it is important to recognize that is not necessarily the case. Wesch makes a point of saying, “media is a way to mediate relationships that are controlled by few and made for the masses.” The culture code in this country is ” work is who you are’ when people as “what do you do” they are essentially asking “who are you” Because the media has such strong say over who is important and who isn’t, qualified people, those same critical thinkers are stifled, thinking they don’t have a firm, strong voice in this country. All that’s available is accepting the one-way conversation that is established between the media and the public. This creation of self worth directly correlating to the media distorts these knowledge-able students by grouping them with the masses, and cutting off completely the conversation between these two groups.
Communications is one of the most important parts of human relationships and developments. Exchanging words, any physical contact can be beneficial, we as young people have come to believe that as time goes on and media becoming increasingly complex and detailed, it is subsequently getting easier and easier to connect. While conceptually that probably is true, using media to organize for construction and production is still lacking. Students have learned to be complacent and all accepting but as a whole, never engaging. Technology and social medias lean towards disruptive and all consuming when there are so many possibilities for it to be utilized as a tool to expand someone’s horizons way more. Being proactive is the one word that summarizes the goal of Michael Wesch’s Ted Talk. For the first time ever we have a tool ( the internet) that has the ability to allow anyone in possession of it have limitless information for every subject under the sum, concrete or abstract, present or past. The amazing thing is that that *same tool* also has the power to link communication and share information, ideas, and plans to anyone and everyone around the entire planet. This new media that has developed has exposed different sub groups, ideas, creativity, and sub-cultures that were always looked over and often misunderstood. We as people as a whole has the opportunity to direct the conversation and let the mediating start with the masses as opposed to our lives being shaped by the selected few/ Media creates mindsets and as Wesch says “mediates relationships” Media and technology
Young people in America have more power than we give ourselves credit for and that is because we are not empowered when we are younger. We often times are over looked and not given the outlook or opportunity to grow, however we have the most influence on the media world so it is up to us to use the resources and think beyond what is given to us to consume.
Elen Marie Pease's 