Kate Crawford’s ‘Noise, Now: Listening to networks’ draws attention to the constant upgrades, transitions and technological advances threatening the structure and functioning of society. It also touches on the present-day reality of social media and technology now controlling us instead of us controlling it.
I found the comment given by a gentlemen in Venice in 1899 from Crawford’s article to be quite fascinating, ‘the nearest motorized vehicle was far away, but sporadic outdoor conversation in the alley below my bedroom window… effectively murdered sleep’ (p. 65).
This same problem is demonstrated today through social media and networking. Taking place of people below windows carrying out real life verbal conversations are the mobile phone and laptop society utilizing devices containing many social media technologies such as twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Skype and a countless catalogue of other addictive and must have technologies, continuing to deprive people of sleep and rob them of time to live productive and fulfilling lives. From my own experience as an adolescent living through such a rapidly growing period of technological advancement I can recall many times of just scraping deadlines in VCE and suffering from severe lack of sleep due to procrastination and dependency on the many services the internet and mobile phones have to offer.
Crawford introduces the reader to Adam Greenfield, who jokingly proposes opening a café chain which contains technologies that block electromagnetic interference therefore no wifi, no web, no e-mail, which emphasizes the eeriness of us as human beings needing an outside party to control and limit our use of social media created by ourselves (p. 69).
Bibliography:
Crawford, K., 2010, ‘Noise, Now: Listening to Networks’ in Meanjin Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 64-9.
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