Media platforms and tools are proliferating at an accelerating rate. This can be a source of great anxiety, given that we are expected to adopt them as fast as they come—a pressure imposed by both social and marketing forces. If we are to avoid such anxiety and get on with living, we have to make choices about which new platforms and tools we want to integrate into our lives. But for some of us, like the late David Carr, adoption of and participation in new media is essential to developing the rich understanding necessary for meaningful critique. Fortunately, he tries not to project this expectation onto others.
DateFebruary 15, 2015TitleThe Sunday Edition with Michael Enright: Remembering David Carr (CBC)Segment00:14:39 – 00:16:17David Carr:
I wonder about… I’ve done a good job at keeping up with the variety of skills that you need to be a journalist but I’m not a digital native. I don’t consume and produce media at the same time. And I haven’t been blogging that much lately and it’s partly because I’m a little tired. I think of my friends, many of whom make the argument not that this stuff will go away but it’s just like: “I’m not going to do it. I’m sure there’s value in Twitter somewhere, I’m sure Reddit is really important. I’m not going to open that part of my life up and let those things in.” I never argue with them. I never say, “you’re a dinosaur you’re screwed” because who’s to say? I’ve done a good job of sort of building my way into a more complicated future, but I’ve sort of gone slowly crazy while I’ve done it. So I was like “are you nuts, don’t you want to be crazy like me?” They did a travel story, so a travel editor brings me in and says what do you do when you go on vacation and I said I check out to see what everyone eats when they go, and I look at this, I do that… and she said I’m going to send you to a place where you can’t do anything. And she put me on a deserted island with nothing. Just two coconuts swaying together. It was absolutely wonderful.