Wired’s July issue featured a problematic infographic based on the FDA’s food pyramid, Wired’s infographic instead focusing on one’s media intake. It is reproduced below:
Wired’s Media Pyramid
You’ll notice that it totals 9 full hours of media intake which is disturbing for several reasons:
1 — Is the appropriate response to a limitless amount of media to consume it in as broad a spectrum as possible?
Given the amount of media being churned out every day, it would be entirely possible to fill nine hours with any one of the constituent groups of Wired’s pyramid: gaming, social networking, microblogging, news, and entertainment. Does it make sense to divide one’s time between arbitrary classes of media, or to divide those 9 hours by subject – visual arts, music, literature, philosophy, news, new media, etc? Living the Wired way, it is entirely possible to play an hour of games, then read, listen, and watch media also related to games, albeit on TV, in front of a computer, from a magazine, and hooked up to an iPod. I’d hardly say device diversity compensates for diversity of subject.
2 – Why doesn’t a balanced media diet include creating new media and responding to consumed media?
More disturbing to me, however, is that this pyramid is entirely passive. Assuming 8 – 10 hours of work plus necessary quotidian duties such as sleeping, eating, and showering, all of one’s free time would be spent on this proposed 9 hours of media consumption. Aside from the obvious concerns that a person should, say, leave the house from time to time, the pyramid depicts a problematic relationship with media. Where is room for expression? Where is a person supposed to consider what this media means, what this media means to him or herself? And it completely undermines the democratic nature of publishing on the internet – no longer is broadcasting limited to those whose day jobs involve media as it is now possible for any internet user to also be an internet publisher. I propose that the pyramid should allocate at least 1/3, if not 1/2 or more, of its time to media production. Researching things that tickled one’s whimsy. Making one’s own blog posts, youtube videos, music tracks, etc. One can levy a serious argument that inspiring everyone to publish content is going to result in avalanches of crap; my rebuttal is that the quality of output is irrelevant as this is about respecting human agency and creativity. It figures that professionals at the top of the mass-media food-chain would not deign to acknowledge that the ability to produce and communicate is not a god-given right to a select-few, but rather an evolutionary trait distinguishing homo sapiens sapiens from the rest of the animal kingdom.
I ask that everyone who reads this post take at least one hour this week to create something and share it (perhaps in the comments below).
3 Comments
not self-advertising here, but thought I’d start. some micro-sized pseudo-lit to pass the time:
DIPLOMACY
he is deaf and blind and mute. he doesn’t know he is deaf and blind and mute. he doesn’t know who Helen Keller is. he doesn’t know who Lindsay Lohan is. he doesn’t know who we are. he is deaf and blind and mute. she is deaf and blind and mute. she breathes and sits and sleeps. she becomes full and pushes from the middle. she thinks she’s thinking and there’s something like hope. they are deaf and blind and mute. they’re left in a room with ample sunlight. their flesh becomes looser and softer, but who knows what light is. they are deaf and blind and mute. some days a bored nurse comes in and sits with him. she strokes his hair and caresses his arm. tears fall from his eyes. his hands were lost in the accident, so he taps the linoleum with his heels. he stretches his toes. he makes a sound that is needing and vulnerable but he doesn’t know he makes a sound. she was born deaf and blind and mute. she thinks about numbers and thoughts and how the room smells. she’s sure there are more of her attached on each end but nothing moves. her middle hurts and wet falls between her legs to the bottom. when he smells this his middle gets bigger. when she screams he can’t hear it. they usually sit next to each other, but they don’t know. sometimes their shoulders touch and both have tears come from their eyes. they hang from their noses and chins. they feel each other pushing the space between each other toward one another. forty years passes but he doesn’t know forty years passes. sometimes he reaches out to touch her but she’s no longer there. he is deaf and blind but mute.
And just to comment, I miss ya and I’m happy people still think, such as yourself, as I know I do less and less. My feelings of basic existential whatever overwhelms. But that’s a personal thing. It’s interesting to note that the creation of this pyramid by whoever is in itself creative expression. I don’t know the context of this Wired article but it’s pretty arbitrary.
Thanks for sharing, Andy. It’s good to hear from you & I’m glad you continue to write.