“I just called”
“I just called”: The medium, remediation, convergence & the workplace
Read the articles on the “retro art” of the phone call (links below) and use your weekly
readings (at least 2) and materials to analyze the change in “human affairs.” Millennials
are widely held to hate phone calls, but Gen Z and the switch to seemingly endless Zoom
sessions have people thinking phone calls might be better. While this is clearly a kind of
remediation, there is more that is happening, including the extensions making work instead
of saving labour, and in particular, there is a change in “human affairs.” So, how would you
combine your readings, topics raised in class and elsewhere to develop an approach that
would analyze and hopefully explain the situation detailed therein. In particular, keep in
mind how the medium is the message actually works and following from that, what are the
social, political, cultural and/or economic ramifications? Who benefits? You MUST refer
specifically to no fewer than two (2) of the assigned required readings from the
COURSE MATERIALS folder up to and including the week the essay is due. External
research is not a requirement and should be done judiciously, with an eye to relevance.
Links
https://www.inc.com/melissa-angell/zoom-fatigue-phone-calls-worker-preference-hy
brid-work-from-home.html
https://slate.com/technology/2022/02/no-more-zooms-please.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/16/stop-watching-me-how-z
oom-helped-me-overcome-my-dread-of-phone-calls