Life Without the Internet
How different would life be without the internet? My generation was the first to grow up with the internet, and it is quite obvious, too. We have access to more information, learn material quicker, identify ourselves in more groups, and so on. It is strange to think about people not growing up with the same technology that I grew up with. How did they learn anything in elementary school, and how did they know the material they were learning was correct? Without the internet, how did anyone do anything?
Meyrowitz’s writing in chapter 4, “No Sense of Place,” really opened my eyes to how the three variables (relative access to social information, backstage/front stage distinctions, and access to physical locations) have an impact on how new media or a change in the media-information systems affect the three social roles processes (group identity, socialization, and hierarchy). In this chapter, one point that stuck out to me was the idea of “backstage teaming.” Backstage teaming happens when “Members of a team are distinguished from members of the audience by their perspective on the situation and by the amount of information they have concerning the performance” (Meyrowitz, pg 55–56). For example, every person who identifies themselves as a teacher is in the same identity group or team. Teachers are on the same backstage team because they plan school related activities for their students without them seeing what kind of work went into it. In every situation there is an “us” and there is a “them.” The people in your “us” group need to share each other’s backstage behavior in order to get a clear sense of what your group or team is all about. On the other hand, the people in other groups, or “them,” need to keep their backstage behavior to themselves and not have access to other groups’ backstage behavior in order for them to stay “them.” Meyrowitz believes that new media may alter the idea of “us” and “them.” He says, “a change in media may rearrange a society’s group identities by offering new ways of revealing or hiding the backstage behaviors of many groups” (Meyrowitz, pg 56). With new technology on the rise, more secrets come out. There may be a television show about teachers, for example, that shows them “behind the scenes” talking badly about their students. I use teachers as an example because they seem the sneakiest when it comes to their backstage behavior, but there are a ton of other identity groups that could be named in regards to having their secrets exposed in this generation of new media.
There is a lot to unpack in regards to my generation and the internet. I truly do not think people my age know how to identify themselves in a group unless it is an obvious one like teacher, athlete, student, etc. Personally, I have different groups of friends for every identity that I give myself; I am in a student group, athlete group, photography group, vegan group, and so on. Back in the days when Meyrowitz wrote this book, people only really stuck with their one group because they did not have the knowledge or access to join other groups. Social media may be “toxic” to some, but it really has given people multiple identities and groups. While scrolling through your explore page on Instagram, you could possibly find your future soulmate. From there you can easily connect with that person, learn more about how he/she already identifies himself/herself, and either go into his/her group or bring him/her into yours. Either way, secrets about the group they are in are going to be revealed to you. It is not nearly as easy to keep secrets about your group or team from anyone else; everything is out in the open on the internet. I do not necessarily think it is a bad thing that these secrets come out because then more people can join a group or team and learn more about who they are as people. I think every person in the world should identify themselves with at least two groups. It is important to dive deep into who you are as a person and what kind of people you feel comfortable surrounding yourself with. The internet and new media have truly helped my generation become more open to new experiences, and, most importantly, new friendships.
