It’s a long time since I have written a blog, but now that I’m retired I would like to share some of my thoughts (often sparked by books I have read) and projects. I will primarily write in English, but those who read only Norwegian can skip to the end of most posts and find something in Norwegian. (Leser du bare norsk gå til slutten av teksten til å finne noe å lese på norsk.)
I have just finished reading “Writing on the Wall – the first 2,000 years” by Tom Standage (2013). Social media is not new and has been around since the Roman times, for 2,000 years, but the technology behind social media has changed over the centuries. The author uses many examples to illustrate his point. Most of his examples explain how the social media of the day helped to spread ideas to at least some of the population. He also includes a chapter on the twentieth century where there was the opposite of social media – media was one-way and broadcast.
In the past, writing letters or pamphlets was often the way of sending information to other people. Letters and information were passed on to other friends, creating a type of circulation of information, often about politics or other current ideas. The printing press just made everything go a bit quicker and allowed a pamphlet to reach more people as it could be reproduced faster. One interesting example was from Pompeii where they discovered that people had actually written on the walls of the buildings. Today we can use the internet to exchange information either through emails, blog posts, and comments on things that we have read. No longer is information only one way, but by sharing we can enrich other people’s lives. So I have been inspired to write blogs more regularly.
It is interesting to see that though many things are different, we humans still have the same needs as people did 2,000 years ago, including the need to share our ideas using the technology of the day.
Nå at jeg er pensjonist, har jeg bedre tid til nye ting. Jeg skal skrive litt om bøker som jeg har lest og de tankene som jeg får fra dem, og i tillegg vil jeg skrive litt om prosjektene jeg holder på med.
Jeg har nettopp leste en bok, “Writing on the Wall – the first 2,000 years” av Tom Standage som kom ut i 2013. Boken handler om sosiale medier og forfatteren går tilbake til gamle Roma for sine første eksemplene om hvordan folk kommuniserte med hverandre før. For eksempel, i Pompeii, skrev folk på veggene i bygningene for å gi beskjeder eller komme med kommentarer om andre.
Teknologien om hvordan vi kommunisere med hverandre har endret, men behovet for å ha skriftlige kommunikasjon med andre er ikke ny. Før skrev folk mye brev eller småhefter, som ble sendt til venner og sendt videre til andre. Når ting kunne trykkes og papiret ble rimeligere i pris, ble enda mer skrevet og delt med andre mennesker. Idag kan vi dele opplysninger og idéer gjennom email, blogs og kommentarene til hva andre har skrevet. For femti år siden var det meste av opplysningene bare en-veis, gjennom radio, fjernsyn og aviser. Nå tillater de nye sosiale medier mer to-veis kommunikasjon.
Det er interessant å se at tross mye er annerledes, menneskene fremdeles har noe av de samme behovene som for to tusen år siden, blant annet behovet for å dele sine idéer med andre gjennom bruk av dagens teknologi. Så nå at jeg har vært inspirert, har jeg lyst å dele med andre gjennom denne bloggen.
Thanks for an enjoyable post. I tried reading “Writing on the Wall” but didn’t manage to get through it, so your summary was most helpful.
I am looking forward to reading your future posts.
It wasn’t always easy to read the book, as he put more detail into it than I really felt was necessary. But I thought that his main ideas that social media isn’t new (just the technology has changed) was worth plowing through the book.
Thankyou Trish. I too am looking forward to reading future posts.