New Technologies and Domestic Consumptions

According to Eric Hirsch, there is a distinct connection between new technologies and domestic consumption. In addition, domestic consumption has been both sustained and threatened by new technologies" (Hirsch 158). He uses the example of the television and the computer when used in a domestic setting. The television, which was once "new media" is being rivaled by the Internet as the main source of broadcasting. His central argument in is essay "is that an explicit emphasis on domestic consumption...has been a project of domestic self-sufficiency" (Hirsch 159).

This argument is an echo of a theory we have discussed over and over again this semester....the medium is the message. For example, before communication devices such as radio, television, the phone, the marketing of products was drastically different. However, once this "new media" found its place within the domestic settings, items such as soap, perfume, furniture, lights (just look around you right now) were marketed in more efficient ways which allowed more of them to sell. The higher the demand, the fancier these products became. Soon, well years and years later, there was the emergence of even new "new media," such as the computer and the Internet. The essay stops here with the land line modem.

Hirsch uses a family that he knows for his study. They purchase a modem so they can connect to the Internet, but it doesn't work in quite the way the want it to. First, it is in the way, and second it ties up the phone line. These were common consumer complaints at that time. However it wasn't long, before better and faster models came about. Hirsch ends his essay, restating McLuhan's theory that the medium is the message. Hirsch states that "what is new and what is old or established are alway co-existent, always define each other. This is only made so by how what is old and what is new are utilized to reshape culture and its needs.

Works Cited

Hirsch, Eric. The Television Studies Book. 2nd. London: 1998.