Culture and the Ultimate Medium

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Culture and the Ultimate Medium

















Lee Kidd
Jason FarmanDTC 375: Language, Texts & Technology
Dr. Farman
Jan. 27, 2009
Word Count: 911




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Culture and the Ultimate Medium

During the last five years, I come to rely heavily on my HP Pavilion laptop throughout each day for numerous reasons. It has changed my life in ways I could only have imagined. I will briefly illustrate some of those changes, as we go along. From my own experience I have come to the following opinion: a high-end laptop is the ultimate medium of choice today: it combines the functions of multiple media; enhancing communication options efficiently and economically, with unprecedented practicality for all. In doing so, it also helps bring people and communities closer together, via the internet, as hypermedia respond to demands for more resources in isolated areas.

The multi-faceted nature of laptops sets it apart from other media. Sure other devices can perform multiple roles, but laptops take media roll-playing to a level all its own. It performs most rolls of entertainment media, including those of a complete stereo system: CD player; radio; recording and has editing capabilities; and of a seventeen inch television. Via the CD-Rom drive, it can also play, store and copy movies. In many other arenas, the laptop is an absolute necessity: such as production, publishing, business, archive, art/design and school projects. Compared to a conventional TV or a desk-top computer, the laptop is a lightweight -- weighing in at seven pounds, The portability, functional flexibility and Wi-fi makes it easy to work at home: from room to room; or the park, and even in some restaurants; without wires as long as the battery stays

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charged, which is about three and a half hours at best. Yes, it is possible to go to Burger King (on lunch break): watch TV; check your e-mail; view podcasts; play U-tube clips; work on a school paper or free-lance design project simultaneously (depending of course on screen size, memory availability and signal strength from the fire station across the street – which is usually very low). Can an I-pod do that? I haven’t had the need to know. These are just some of the unique aspects of this revolutionary medium.

Laptops have contributed to the enhancement of communication options, culturally and visually: using a multi-plex of media screens and Wi-fi. Unlimited numbers of individuals can inter-act simultaneously through: gaming; textually (e-mail, Instant Messaging and others); and vocally! My niece uses her laptop to speak with her friends; sends and receives IM’s (Instant Messages) and e-mail; all the while playing Warcraft. They have also helped to reshape our culture through internet chat rooms and dating in cyberspace. Some may experience a deeper (or hyper) sense of reality than face to face interaction. The communication options of a laptop allow people convenience, flexibility and choice, at any given moment: different from a phone or some other medium.

It is also a necessary tool for efficient communication in business: desk-top publishing contractors, for example, use laptops as a portable office. I keep mine in a case with wheels; which holds all my files, programs, disks and other essentials for doing business on location. E-mailing files is preferred for its efficiency, unless a graphic file is too large. Even then it can be saved on a convenient CD and shipped the next day. It also reduces design production time, with the immediacy of art itself, and is therefore economical. A laptop can also be an efficient way pay bills at home or on the road. A person can multi-task on-line: pay bills; check e-mail; view news podcast; check the weather report; stock report; go shopping and watch TV with the greatest of ease, without even getting out of bed. This efficient medium can eliminate or reduce the need for stamps, commuting to and from work, running errands and much more; therefore saving time, gas, and money. Why would anyone use a desk-top computer for any thing other than a mass storage device?

The laptop has become a remarkable medium in its own right. Through technological appropriation, remediation and vision, many other forms of media have been rendered virtually obsolete: recording devices; VCR machines and conventional stereo systems to name a few. Personally, I no longer have need for a TV set, stereo or radio. My laptop is the ultimate media package deal, or so it seems. I also use my laptop as a design studio: graphic programs replace my need, high cost and mess of art supplies; and the computer screen is my canvas. One can download and retouch photos, eliminating the need and cost of photo processing. What other portable medium has the functional practicality to, not just replace or transform an entire home office/ studio: but rather, induce a unique concept and practice through digital technology?
Sharing digital technology through laptop hypermediacy ethically; to benefits mankind, I think all would agree is an appropriate use of technology. Any one of these media has the potential for improper usage. In my opinion: harassment; cyber-stocking; internet defamation and web-cam images of a

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private nature, void of subjects’ approval, are not appropriate uses. A better use, one might argue, would be to use all media to find lost loved ones.

In conclusion, I’ve given brief illustrations through specific personal and cultural examples, why a high-end laptop is the ultimate stand-alone medium: my daily use of its hypermediacy have altered my life economically and culturally, and thus, simplifying it. What other media could cause and affect such a profound lifestyle revision? It’s both exciting and hard to imagine what’s next.