The 20th century was completely dominated by mass media sources from start to finish. More than anything, this process accelerated and was consolidated into fewer and fewer hands as the 20th century continued on. But the 21st century and various global networks look to finally break this vice grip on the flow of information around the world.
In the first part of the 20th, radio and newspapers were the dominant way information was passed around large distances and around communities. Community discussions and interaction were still very much a part of the common culture, but even with a social support structure and the ability to discuss issues mass media was able to massively influence the flow of events by prescripting events and by eliminating “unneeded details”.
In the years after World War II, radio broadcasts were largely replaced by the television. This new medium had more information by allowing for moving images to come alongside the sound, and by this definition was generally accepted to be a better method to transfer information.
Enter the 90’s and the personal computer, internet, and the Techno Generation; the first generation to grow up with computers as much a part of everyday existence as a pencil and paper were to a person in the 50’s. From this point on, every person with money on the globe could access a worldwide network of information and people that had infinite possibilities. At the same time, each person could create their own version of the world and expose the rest of the planet to their interpretation.
But for all intensive purposes, the change was too great to handle right at first. People were used to having “trusted sources” but were now thrust into a world where no source (or maybe all sources) were just as correct as another. The only real source of information would be created from reading multiple pieces on the same topic across the bandwidth of information available. Then by reading through the disinformation, promotions, and outright lies, one could potentially have a decent idea of what was actually happening on the ground at the time.
As we progress further into the 21st century, we will continue to be deluged with information, and much to our benefit if we know how to handle it. Standard television broadcasts will fade into the past, with thousands of video channel providers offering shows of exceptional quality and variety. Every user will more quickly understand that they too can become a video or information provider and even more choices will appear as time goes on.
I personally have created my own niche newssource, Grid Wide News, which is a Second Life News source. Second Life, the largest 3D social simulation, has a large paying and non-paying customer base, and much of a business models existence in Second Life depends on the most up-to-date product lines. In this way, Grid Wide News (essentially a Second Life Blog) is able to agregate and distrubute worthwhile information to people who demand such information, just as any newspaper does. This is simply an example of the massive number of possible niches that a person could find to provide worthwhile information to a group of individuals with a common information need.
This creative explosion will not be contained through technological progress, it will be augmented. New systems of controlling computers, such as brainwave sensing devices, will quickly allow old users new capabilities and new ideas, and will allow for completely new users to join the world of tech. Many times the keyboard and mouse has been a stumbling block of itself, the novel tools making new users feel awkward and strange; but through brainwave sensing we can spread computing power to people with no technological knowledge whatsoever.
The world has been changed by technology, irrevocably. First through sheer computing power, then by network creation, and soon by a creative explosion that will reshape the planet. The pace of change is accelerating through this technological boom, and at some point soon we will likely lose all ability to foretell what revolution will sweep the globe next. Technology itself, through nueural simulations known as AI, will potentially pass all human abilities in the very near future.
We are entering unknown territory; and we have no reasonable ability to conclude what the end will be of all of the changes the world is seeing currently from technological advancement. A “brave new world” maybe upon us in a far different way than we ever imagined, and on a far shorter timescale than our nightmares could have ever created.