E233. Thomas de Zengotita Thinks We're Mainlining Flattery

Mediated Series - Part 6:

Published in 2005, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live In It , became Bridget's bible for understanding the changing media landscape and how it is affecting our society and behavior. Now she sits down with author Thomas de Zengotita for a multi-part series discussing the book chapter by chapter. 

In Part 6, Bridget and Thomas discuss the implications of technological advances and that the important thing to realize is that at the end of the day it isn’t the technology itself, it’s the way that it forces us into a whole new set of social situations that didn’t used to exist. They explore how hard it is to get people to pay attention to technological advancements when they’re concerned with social and ethical ones, people collaborating in their own disintegration by yielding to the social pressures that get generated by the technology, the way it alters our social arrangements, making the thing without stopping to think whether or not you should. They also cover the history of suicide, how the instinctive need for acknowledgment and attention that we’re all born with has been hijacked by the media environment, wanting to feel like you have authority, audience capture, and the Bill Clinton scandal and shift it signaled regarding shame in our society.

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