It is widely believed that the media shrink the world and enhance a worldwide communication. Though it would be rather difficult to argue with that statement, I find it hard to believe that the media create a unified community, defined by promoting a free flow of information. Martin Lister holds that the “shared online spaces allegedly provide a sense of ‘cyber community’ against the alienations of contemporary life.” Lister adds to this rather risky statement that new media give us “the removal of information and communication from central authority, control and censorship.” I find these two concepts to be very far from the truth.

First of all, the “new media” tend to limit our true contact with the outside world.  I speak from experience and I have a hunch that I am not an exception. Instead of calling a person, I prefer to text him or her or just send an email – it’s quicker and can always be edited before sending. Rather than going to a kiosk to buy a newspaper and having a small talk with the shop assistant, I’d rather read it online… for free. Instead of making lengthy, thus pricey international phone calls, I use Facebook or an instant messenger to contact some of my friends. Though this way I can save some time and money, can we actually call it communication? Studies show that over 50% of a written message is misinterpreted and that 93% of communication is non-verbal. In various forms of digitalized communication, it is often difficult to recognize sarcasm or even some of the most basic emotions. The new media certainly increase the speed of communication but they also deprive it of emotions, gesticulation, body language and articulation. We might as well talk to robots.

In addition, lack of censorship in the modern world is a myth. Apart from the clear division of media into leftist and rightist, numerous communities do not have access to the truth. When a Chinese person types in Google “Tiananmen”, he or she will not learn much about the massacre that took place in 1989. Similarly, the news coverage in Cuba is limited to local news and the information from beyond the iron curtain are filtered by the oppressionist government.

It appears that technological progress, as everything, has its disadvantages. The media are still a fairly new subject and it should remind us to approach it with reserve.