Rewired By Digital Era

Rewired by Digital Era

July, 2013

An analysis by Siyabonga Nkabinde
e-mail: siyabongan.707 @gmail.com

A note from Siyabonga:
I am from Soweto, Johannesburg, SA. I am a senior student at NEMISA (National Electronic Media of South Africa, and as part of the school requirement each student is required to write a senior thesis. I chose to take digital analysis and explore how we have been influenced by digital era. The task requirement we had to pick a design problem and find dissertations on it, add our own thoughts, and put it all together. My paper is inspired by an article that I just read on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 9:13 IST | Agency: Daily Telegram by Paul Kendall. The article talks about how we’ve been rewired?  What I noticed when reading the article is the truth insight the issue of what is happening around us in term of how we do things and the influence of digital era. I want to explore more of key points of the article and find ways to educate them through design solutions as a medium of communicating to digital communities.

Abstract

This research paper is based on the Digital Age[1], and in particular, the phenomena of Social Media. The aim of this paper is to explore the world of social media[2] in terms of how it has influenced the way we live. Social media is another way of communication, this platform of communication is brought about by the digital transformation of online communication. This research paper is based on challenges faced by social media communities on the internet. People have become rewired in the way they have come to depend on online resources. Whereas in the past people experienced face-to-face interaction for shopping, work and play, the digital age has already changed the way we interact in that we can do all our shopping, working and playing online. Explore how advertiser has used this platform to lure consumer to procure into their products in the market space.  The study will look at the behavioural attitude on individual and different groups that are formed in the social media space as well as possible psychological and socio-cultural changes that we have undergone.

Convenience aside, the amount of time we spend on the internet has influenced the way we socialise with each other and the way that we learn.  What this paper hopes to achieve is to predict possible long-term negative effects on our society such as addiction and the erosion of our moral framework. The abstract is an outline guide to my readers to get insight of the discoveries which are aim to find in the next five months. I believe that Kendal was writing about a number of different ways of how we interact with digital devices. I will be searching for ways to raise awareness by educating digital communities about the danger that can result in digital platforms. This will be achieved by raising awareness and educating digital communities about the dangers that one can encounter by creating warning posters as a visual medium. Lets us take a closer look at each story and through analysis see the relationships as Paul Kendall wanted to show us in his article.

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[1] Digital Age is the Information Age is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on the information computerization.

[2] Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities