Welcome Wanderer

If we were to meet face to face I would welcome you in time and space. 

Does that even make sense ? I apologize for my propensity to rhyme when I am try to say something profound. It's probably not even that profound.

 However, it does bring me to the point that I would like to make. Stories! My initial intention for this blog has been and still is to explore the stories that society tells itself, this is my life's obsession. This began for me when I learned that a culture other than the Judao-Christian tradition has a flood story.

Did you know that the ancient story tellers would pass along stories verbally? They had to memorize long rhyming epics that were never written down until hundreds of years later. 

This is story telling 101 so I apologize if I'm not telling you anything new. But what you might not realize is that with every new technological advancement that has changed the way we tell stories, has also changed what society believes about itself.

There is an inter relationship between: Society -> Technology -> Stories
its cyclical and interdependent.

There was a man named George Gerbner who spent decades studying and tabulating data on the effects  of television. What he and his team of researchers discovered I believe can be applied to all media. What they discovered is that

•  How an individual takes in information effects the believability of the information. Example: A person who sits down to watch a news show with the specific intention of listening for information (active viewer) will be much more discerning about the information they absorb. A person who has who has a TV on in the background (passive viewer) is absorbing information subconsciously and not filtering it's believability. When one then hears that same information again it sounds familiar and is then believed to be true.
• The larger the mediums audience the bigger community of shared experience. Example: When stories were broadcast on the radio, the signal might reach several towns over, bringing together a fan club that might not have otherwise met. Today we can comment on videos and engage in conversations with people all over the world via the internet. 
• The necessity to afford costly equipment to tell stories requires commercializing. Stories are no longer a means to pass along the values of a society but a way of selling stuff. Because we are still wired to be socialized by the stories we hear, we have become a consumer society. 

 Marshall McLuhan said "The medium is the message."

So the next time you are listening to the news or watching a show stop and think, What are they selling? Do I believe what they say? Are they endorsing values that I want to exhibit in me? 

You still have the power of choice. So choose your message and your medium wisely. 

And If we ever meet face to face we can recreate the ancient story telling ritual, around a campfire, with no technology but our minds.