Posted: September 13th, 2017

Generation like

Harold Innis once warned that warned that Western civilization is imperiled by powerful, advertising-driven media obsessed by “present-mindedness” and the “continuous, systematic, ruthless destruction of elements of permanence essential to cultural activity.” In essence, he saw giant media conglobations developing the language of the masses, effectively penetrating popular consciousness and shaping public opinion.

In many ways these asserts could be leveled at the online phenomena witnessed in Generation Like, where teenager obediently carried out the tasks that were once the exclusive work of advertisers, marketers, and pitch-men.

Last week, we explored a collection of theories that attempted to explain the effect media had on its audience. But all of these were developer before the widespread popularity and use of the internet. With this assignment, it’s your job to create a theory that explains “Generation Like”, using either an observational or predictive perspective.

Doing so will involve a five part process:

1. Identify the purpose of your theory.

2. Identify the sequence of ideas and major steps of reasoning (think of axioms or a set of rules)

3. Identify the pattern or patterns used to organize the thought.

4. Identify the conclusions drawn from the reasoning.

5. Evaluate whether the conclusions are warranted on the basis of the argument.

Your essay should be at least 1,800 words, and edited for the three C’s: clarity, conciseness, and correctness.