The Age of Ease

So, I haven't written a post in a while, and so, in order to continue on in getting an acceptable participation grade in this class, I have decided to end my dry-spell.

Listening to Ryan Adams, while I type through a web-browser set against a Bob Dylan, No Direction Home desktop, I would not expect for my personality to be one that is digitally enhanced, or concerned--- but I am. Why this incredible fascination with recent activity related to my friends and comrades online? All I really do online is check to see if someone has left a comment on of my several outlets of internet community.

So, running with this notion of a continued interest in displaying ourselves online, most of the time, creating ourselves an image that will be most attractive, I want to look at the evolution of this sort of Community.

What is a Community, anyways? I like one of the definitions that dictionary.com provides.

2. The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.

To me, this a clear explanation of the draw of these online communities. Organisms, (that would be us) find a mutual ground to interact, such as any population might-- for comradeship, and relationship. The ultimate goal of a community of organisms is to prosper and fulfill the natural requirement to procreate? Right?

I heard a girl the other day refer to having sex as "Populating." Funny, and true. Way to go, friend.

Being a student of PR, I have had to take some classes about the evolution of media in our world. All of my professors have chosen to label different periods throughout history in relation to how we have developed in information and digital technology. Each of my professors has chosen a different way of expressing each era, but they are all basically the same concepts.

1. Pre-Printing
2. Printing
3. Radio
4. Television
5. Internet

Some call our particular era the "Information Age," in relation to a rise in online use and supplemental relationships through online communities. Information usually means that we are acquiring things that we previously did not have, in this case more technology, and digitization. To me, the information age can be translated as the Age of Ease. Without lifting much more than a finger, our generation is able to access literally a world of things online. Without lifting much more than a finger, we are able to watch videos online from across the world. Without lifting much more than a finger, we are able to present ourselves as "date-able" and literally date online.