New Media, New Weapon

725 Words3 Pages
Nowadays, no one can deny the benefit of new media. However, like a weapon, new media can also have bad effects. For me, everything depends on how people use it. If they use it for good things, it can give benefits to them and people around them. But, if they misuse it, new media can harm its user and cause trouble among people that are related to them. Hence, I would like to extend two ideas after reading “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” from Andrew Lam, which is about how “people can gain popularity by using new media” (25) and how “extraordinary news can spread through new media just by ordinary people” (24). According to Andrew Lam, “through the digital world, people can attain real power”(25). “YouTube video” is one of the examples that Lam provide to emphasize his statement. I, too, agree that power can be gained through digital world and social media. If we look at Lam’s proof, we may notice that people can attain power using media by their own intention such as “erstwhile unknown singer” and “able-bodied women and men” (25). However, I saw another interesting scenario in my country that people can become famous even without their intention. A few years ago, there was one religious man who loved preaching to people in the mosque in my country. However, his speech was so interesting that people started to record it and upload it to YouTube. Several years later, he became so famous until almost all the citizens in my country knew him, especially teenagers. Thousands of teenagers were willing to come and hear his speech, including me. After considering all the above evidence, without doubt, new media can be used for a good purpose such as the use of weapon to protect us from bad people. Another point that interests me the most is, this religious man was never appeared in the television. How can this happen? A person who doesn’t appear in television even once can
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