Media Literacy & Technology Dependence

Media literacy is the ability to understand and use most media facets that exist in today’s world.  These media types include television such as news, radio, billboards, magazines, social networks, phones  and so on.  Media literacy is how we perceive the world through forms of media we use in everyday life.  How well we are all able to interpret what the media puts out there for us to know will shape the way we individually see society.  

It can be thought of a different way of education.  In any class we are pushed to understand and even question what we are taking in.  Media literacy is exactly that; what we see and hear is immediately questioned by us because it is a natural human instinct to question something.  However because the media hits us from so many different directions its hard to take in everything this in turn means that subconsciously we take things in that we do not entirely notice. 

This all comes down to how media shapes our society and culture. The combination of our ability to analyze the media and the vast entity that is media produces a society that is essentially driven completely by the media. 

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Technology Dependence is exactly what is sounds like.  I honestly do not believe I could effectively communicate or even keep myself busy without some sort of technology.  Technology dependence has gone so far that its very possible to use one device for all of your technology needs.  I have an iphone and I use it for almost everything; music, email, facebook, CNN, weather and the list goes on.  However, im not certain if technology dependence is a good thing or if its a bad thing.  Being able to use do everything you need to get done in no time at all using whatever devices you use is awesome and extremely effective.  What happened to writing letters in the mail and reading the newspaper?  I think its still is a good skill to be able to effectively write a letter by hand and know your way around a newspaper.  Although it may be a good skill its too slow for me and probably too slow for the rest of the world.  While im working in whatever profession I choose I admit im going to be completely dependent on whatever technology I need to be to get my job done fast and effectively.