In the essay The Ecstasy of Communication, Jean Baudrillard discusses how reality is changing due to changes of consumer goods and the speed of communication. Baudrillard uses the example of a car with a computer in it that talks to the driver and may even refuse to operate under certain conditions. When the driver of this car relinquishes power to the computer in the car, the driver does not care about the drive only about arriving at a destination. By relinquishing control the driver experiences less, and consequently his reality is changed.
Baudrillard uses the example of the telephone and FM radio, but we feel that todays social media might be more relevant to the speed of communication. Google, Facebook and Twitter all let us exchange information rapidly. The messages that we send are very short, succinct and instantaneous. This is changing the way we receive information. No one wants to (or has the time to) wait for the six o’clock news or read about it in the newspaper. We want information now in a concise format. This is what Baudillard refers to as the obscene, where things that are important to us are reduced to the minimum and made available to the world at the click of a button.
According to Baudillard this complete transparency of instantaneous information leads to a state of ecstasy, and this ecstasy is the the end of individualism and passion. As a group we feel that, this is not entirely true. While individualism and passions may be diminished by the transparency and rapid speed information is exchanged at, it also causes new forms of creativity and connectivity between people. An example would be using Skype to stay in contact with friends and family while you are traveling.
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