Is THIS postmodern?

In class on Tuesday, I was reminded how an active, small group of people can bring out huge social change across the world. For example, women felt the need to want to control their reproductive systems, so a man created birth control. This type of “surreal” and “absurd” thinking would not be accepted in a modern culture. However, now we are living in a postmodern culture, where different ideas and thoughts are actually being considered.

In class it was brought up that this aura might not be postmodern because of the cultural phenomena of the World Wide Web that has marked this very moment in time. The computer has changed the way we look at our world and ways of life. Not only has the internet marked a new era but the explosions of the media and language have as well. In the early 20^th century, theorists at the time were writing manifesto’s to try to understand the change from modern to postmodern. They did not fully understand the truth and it wasn’t revealed until after most of them passed away. I believe that we are in a new point past postmodernism but we will not figure it out until the moment has past.

In class, the word fear interested me because it was instilled in people throughout all the social changes in the past. I personally believe that the media instills fear into the public through many different tactics like the Mean World Syndrome. By keeping the audience in a state of fear, the news media can keep a grasp on unchanging ideas and a modern way of thinking. For example, is it really necessary for news reporters to say in December that Skin Cancer is killing off more and more people a year? After 9/11 the media exploited our fear by showing images of the planes going into the Twin Towers more times than I can count. Fear plays a big part in every event from condoms to Al-Qa’ida that brings social change.