From orality, we jumped to literacy, but that seemed not to satisfy the human race. The art of reading and writing was been as a great way in which humans could document whatever they wanted. However, the dawn of computers has seen this perception fade into the dark overtime. In this volume (22) of electronic mediation, the focus is directed towards the culture of digital tools. This part of the book begins with a flashback of how we used to live in the Stone Age. However, man has evolved into the world of silicon chips and not stones anymore.
Walter Benjamin’s
study concludes that “copy at first glance appears to be entirely modern, a
product of the age of mechanical reproduction’’. The authors mention that copy
functions have predated its existence with the example that singers performed
the same song again and again. With the passage, “as for paste, it is a
function whose traces are wiped out overtime….. It is therefore difficult to
discuss pasting with any certainty ’’ finally, the author of this article talks
about cutting and distinguishes the three (cutting, copying and pasting). I
must admit that I find this article very interesting. The author not only
provides a sneak preview into the whole topic, but details information as well.
In conclusion, this
is a very educational reading. It reminds us of where we have been and why we
are where we are in terms of information recording. From the Stone Age, to the
silicon age, data is no longer on ink but encoded in binary. I would easily
recommend this book to anyone because it is simple to read and has precise
information.
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