By Myerlyn Q. Myers
News Public Trust- www.newspublictrust.com continues its series with various perspectives from students of Liberia’s state owned University on How the New Media/Digital Media Has Changed The Way They And Others Communicate.
With the coming of the Internet few decades ago, the New Media or Digital Media have come, which is fast-moving and has “changed the nature of social life”.
EPISODE #5
Tremendous changes have come our way through the advent of the Digital Media. The way we communicate has changed in so many respects. This has afforded me the opportunity to communicate in a variety of ways with people around the world.
The digital media has helped me communicate with my family, friends, and other relatives instantly. At first, it was not so. I used to send letters through mail and it will take weeks or month before it reaches to my family members, most especially the ones who are abroad.
It has also helped improve my writing skills; I have learned short form for words and also learned to spell words correctly. Digital media has also helped me connect with people from all around the world and we share different ideas on issues.
What have been some of the major changes experienced?
Some of the major changes experienced are, you can stream your videos and it will reach a large audience; example: Facebook live. You can now sell your music online through iTunes, sportify and you can also sell your business as well.
I am not alone in the tremendous changes that this new media have brought in the way we communicate nowadays.
According to a Liberian, Mr. John Smith, back then people used to go to a particular place in Liberia to call oversea but now it is not like that anymore, people also used to use tape to play music but it different now.
For Miss. Love Johnson, since digital media was introduced, it has made the digital world very easy to navigate through unlike the analogue age, in so far as taking and editing picture and videotaping special events. Now, she says, one can transfer information on digital media from one person to another with relative ease.
When asked about some of the advantages and disadvantages of this new digital culture, Miss Love says they are many. She cites few such as the opportunity to talk to someone from a distance; spreading the Gospel online, etc.
Some disadvantages she named are that people can hack your email/Social Media account and post anything negative on it; and it is so addictive that some people spend more time on smartphone and the Social Media than taking part in meaningful face-to-face social gathering at home and other places.
As for Mr. Smith, the advantages of digital media are that one can do live video, attend classes online, etc. According to him, some of the disadvantages are that you are unable to interface with most of the people you communicate with online and one has to spend a lot on money daily on buying data to use the internet.