Anywho! My thought today has to do with what I was reading for Sociology this morning. It was all about how our culture is changed based on our communication, which is based on technology and the change in media. The part that I found most interesting was when it was talking about epistemology (what is knowledge and how do we know what we know) and how we apply those concepts to writing and speaking. In our culture, the written word is what we turn to when we are looking for veracity. When writing a paper in the academic world, quotes and references have to be from books and other written things rather than what someone told you the other day. Things written down seem to hold more water than word of mouth. And yet, when we are searching for truth, we want it to come out of the mouth of a witness. In the court room, witnesses must say their stories out loud. When we want to know if our significant other actually means what they say, we want to hear it come out of their own mouth, and not over a text... Why is this? Why does this paradox exist? The written word is more authentic, but the spoken word holds the truth? And why is it that pictures don't seem to hold any truth at all? It's all based on our styles of communication and how our culture has been influenced by it.
I just found that very interesting and rather thought provoking. With Anthropology, Sociology and Philosophy all on my plate this semester, I'm starting to see the world in a completely different way. Everything I thought I knew is a lie! Just kidding, it's not... I'm just not exactly seeing the whole truth. Not yet anyway :)
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