New media is not new, yet transforms into different devices we see around from time to time. According to me “media” is a tool to change the minds of masses. So basically if we see this definition the tool existed at cave men times when the people drew cave paintings and others perceived the message and reacted according to it. The very first form new media emerged in the 19th century when Lumiere Brothers projected the moving pictures of few seconds. Then the first featured length film was made in 1906 “The story of the Kelly Gang”. Later on Radio emerged after World War and became an access to everyone and one could get easily tune into the desired frequency and listen to it. After the radio, television emerged and became a new media, then the new media of “home entertainment” Tapes and cassettes came. And now in today’s world we have internet, online video watching facility, smartphones and communicating with close ones with just click of a button. As time will progress, there will be new updates to the technology. Like for example smart watches are being developed which will have everything just like any other smartphone and the transfer of new media’s device will shift towards a smart watch in near future.
For me I think new media it not over hyped but a revolution. The biggest aspect is that it has given a free will to the audience to express their views and thoughts. The biggest platform ever for a common man includes Facebook, YouTube and twitter. With just these 3 aspects a revolution came in the countries of Middle East and toppled down the government. In just recent in Pakistan, the murder of Shazaib bought many supporters in thousands to support his family and to bring justice. One another example is that Shia killings in Pakistan have bought many supporters on Facebook and with just a single click; thousands received the message and went on the protest areas to join them in the procession.
The experience between virtual community and real community is different. Community means a group of living in a same society having more or less the same quality of lifestyle. Virtually means the interaction between two groups without being present actually in the same location and having no sense of touch and smell between the two groups. That includes using of social websites like Facebook and twitter, Chat rooms and virtual worlds (Sim City). Even though communicating and sharing knowledge and information with one another is faster and easier approach, people can shop different things by sitting just at home and can view other friends doings by sitting at home but the problem is that is heavily affects their grooming with their peer groups and their socialization with the real world out there.
For example one cannot judge ones personality by just looking over their online profiles and their pictures, they have to at least physically see what the reality is. Another major aspect is the communication problem. When a person does not hang out with other peer groups in real life, then confidence problem builds up and would be bound to face issues in real life. Lastly the problem is that people create avatars on their profile which in some way portrays them but in fact it’s not. Creating avatar basically shows that this is what the people want to be in real life. Avatars hide the true personality of a being thus insecurity also arises and it affects when they both meet up in real life and hardly talk to one another but in fact chat more in virtual world.
In real life when we communicate with authority, we do it with respect, honor and dignity. It all somehow changes when we interact with them virtually. Probably because we hide our own identities and thus we believe that it would be difficult for the authority to track us which is a completely false belief. For example hypothetically speaking when we meet the president of our country, we greet him with respect and on the other hand when we social page of the same president, we will brag and bash the president and opening up facts against him as if we would kill the president the minute we see him/her. Same is the case with the police; there are higher chances that one can miscommunicate with them and when facing them in reality, they would have to pay for the crime.
To conclude yes it does change because that is how we have been trained and constructed to behave and perform according to what the society and the surroundings have made. With the help of Social Media the respect boundaries between the authority and us vanishes and the biggest examples have been the downfall of Arab empire in Egypt and Libya.