Liandra Pires’ response to “Counting Electric Sheep: Understanding Information in the Context of Media Ecology” and “Cut, Copy, Paste”

I never knew how complex media ecology was. There are so many different aspects to the subject matter. I liked the article “Counting Electric Sheep: Understanding Information in the Context of Media Ecology.” It was a lot of information to take-in all at once but it was very interesting.

That being said, there were some very thought-provoking parts of the article. I liked section 1.3 on Information and Remediation. I appreciated the part where it discussed that a ‘given medium can become the content of another medium.’ Some examples were how a spoken language becomes the content of written texts or how a motion picture broadcast on television becomes the content of that movie. As McLuhan stated, “When a new environment is introduced, the older environment becomes part of its content.” I also liked section 2.1 on Space. It was very interesting to read how communication has evolved over time. It started out where communication remained confined to local areas and villages and communication was conducted entirely by word of mouth. Fast forward to the 21^st century and now electronic media gives us the ability to transmit information instaneously. It is fascinating to see how far technology has come.

As for the article “Cut, Copy, and Paste,” it really made you think. I have never thought twice about those three simple words: cut, copy, paste. Professor Strate says that cut, copy, and paste are prehistoric technical activities, as methods of manipulating the environment. The part of the article where it states that language allows us to edit reality is so true. When describing an experience, we leave out information that we think is irrelevant or don’t want people to know. The same goes for us elaborating our accounts as well as repeating a story to different audiences on different occasions. When browsing Facebook or Twitter, have you ever noticed that people usually post about wonderful and exciting things happening in their lives? How often do you see someone talk about how depressed or miserable they are? Not very often and that’s because people “cut” out information that they don’t want people to see. People use the cut, copy, and paste tools every day in their lives and don’t even realize it. This article really opened my eyes to the meaning of cut, copy, and paste and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.