As a student who intends to study the interpersonal and psychological approaches to communication, to me, the communication technologies courses appear at first glance to be a daunting but well needed delve into the age of electronics.Always a late bloomer into the hippest and newest technologies, I’ve never been the most knowledgable about what importance technology plays into the theories on communication. However, it seems to be that as the rapid as the technology sector’s growth has been in recent decades, the pull to join the techies is almost inescapable.
Embracing technology as an individual consumer requires a different perspective than the evaluation of emergent technologies as a whole. I for one, appreciate to be a critical consumer but embrace a more wholistic and varied perspective when learning to appreciate and critique the worth of a new ‘toy’ to the current age. It becomes easy to mock the fanboys and fangirls of the new Apple watch, yet it was just as easy to mock iPad users before I became a notetaker on one myself.
To examine where obsession with personal ownership of comm technologies became a mainstream actuality, the development and popularity of the radio is a likely culprit. For nearly 100 years, folks of all ages have clung to, poured over and worshiped the magic that is radio. The transmission of whatever sweet melody is your jam became portable, became easy, common, and cheap as hell.
A hilarious film, Pirate Radio, explores some of the controversial bumps in radio’s history, yet overall tells again the tale of the peoples love of radio
What could have been more desired than easy access to one of societies most favoured arts? Radio brought our dancing grooves, our favourite books, our worshiped comedians, our sports, our news, and our relaxing tunes to our homes, cars, work and anywhere we pleased. The explosion of the radio made us greedy for more, and technology has indeed delivered.
Since the world seems to be an oyster of technological toys that pop up left and right, ripe for consumption, my relationship with the radio has been slightly neglected as of late. Although the radio was my first seduction into use of communication technologies, it gave me a thirst for more. Nowadays, I (and to my knowledge most of my peers) spend more time on the internet and watching television and film than listening to a radio station or program. This is not to say music has lost any kind of appeal, it has just transitioned to consumption through alternative mediums, namely internet-based streaming.
Among my cohorts I’ve seen the similar trend to the graph above, as folk tend to be more and more reliant on streaming music, radio devices are gathering more dust.
However, some one particular way of using the radio seems to remain in full effect for many media consumers and that using radio in the car. The ease of radio in the car is that one does not have to bring an extra device or hook anything up to listen to news, sports or music. A quick errand run is often perfect time to revisit my old friend, the radio.
It is through the steadiness of the car radio that I believe the technology can survive a bit longer. Until cars with built in internet become as easy and cheap as the original radios, I believe the AM and FM channels may still see there time in the sun. However, the ability to select and customize radio and pay a small fee to eliminate the advertisement breaks is soon to overshadow any allure of the traditional radio.
I find myself sentimental about the radio because looking at my own use of this medium highlights that I may be more of a techie than I’d like to believe. I flatter myself as one prone to the vintage and one who enjoys the simplicity of the tried and true, but my abandonment of the classic radio indicates that the urge for new, minimalistic and easy technology does not escape much of anyone.
As I learn to embrace technologies role in my identity and communication, I’ll reminisce on some of the tunes that turned me onto the radio and then subsequently pulled me to iPods, Spotify, and bluetooth speakers.
austencoles 