Media Unlimited

In Media Unlimited, Tod Gitlin talks about how we are overwhelmed with sounds and images in our lives, and how they are changing the way we live. The premise of this book really excited me, I have a brother who is five years younger than me, and the difference between media in his life and mine is pretty intense. I was looking forward to finding out more about how being so wired is changing how we live and think, but I was disappointed to find the book so dry and outdated. (Although it was kind of impressive and a little scary to see how dramatically media changed in 8 years.) I had two solid 4 hour bus rides to dive into this book, and I could really only manage about thirty pages at a time, partially due to the pacing, and also because most of the references just weren't relevant anymore. When I did find a bit I got interested in, it only seemed to last a page or so before the academic droning continued. I could blame my short attention span on how used to instant gratification I've become with modern media, but I think it had more to do with how drawn out and academic the text became, and my struggle to related to outdated references I didn't follow when they were relevant.