Social Media Renaissance: Part 2

A common worry throughout history has been how more convenient forms of communication can negatively alter our realities. (See this comic for details.) However, with convenient forms of communication come convenient forms of feedback. It puts power into the hands of the people to not only circulate ideas, but to make them well-polished. I believe Milton would have thrived in our modern community. As mentioned in my last post, Milton believed people deserved the opportunity to become scholars and sages. Because of Martin Luther, Milton, and other Reformers with similar beliefs, we have the information we do. And the number of people exposed to the Restored Gospel increases each year because of the stance of the Church on social media. It's hard to give testimonials for others, though they are out there, so I'll briefly touch on some things I've done and experienced through this format.

It can be difficult to figure out at first, but once used to, it can be exciting.

Things I've done

• Found communities in Google + that may be interested in the topic or the blog
• Posted different hooks for different audiences
• Read and responded to others' posts

Fun perks

• An educational community from Singapore has shown interest in my ideas about education
• I've learned a lot about PLCs from a lot of critics and supporters
• Educators and others from around the U.S. have put me in their circles to see more about these subjects
• I've had scholarly discussions and found places to go for future research
• I've received personal and specific feedback about ideas my roommates think are too boring

Social Media Renaissance

It has been said of our generation that we are in the "Social Media Renaissance." What does that mean for Milton lovers? It means we're one step closer to his own world. Life in the Renaissance was changing fast. Why? (I know you love all my rhetorical questions). Fine I'll tell you. Because their way of communicating was changing. 

Education specialists Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner say in their novel Teaching as a Subversive Activity,

"You seldom, if ever, have an old element plus a new element, such as a printing press or an electric plug. What you have is a totally new environment requiring a whole new repertoire of survival strategies. . . When you plug something into a wall, someone is getting plugged into you. Which means you need patterns of defense, perception, understanding, evaluation. You need a new kind of education."

I could talk for days about the implications of new media on education (ask my slowly decreasing pool of non-Facebook friends), but I won't. What I will talk about is how media always has and always will play a crucial role in our learning process through social feedback.

Blogging as a Tool for Studying Milton

creative commons licensed
by Drew Brayshaw

Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.

--John Milton, Areopagitica

A blog is a sort of streaming fountain, and is perhaps a modern way through which truth can flow and not sicken into the muddy pool of conformity about which Milton speaks. My students and I will blog here about John Milton, his works, and his relevance for today. Team Milton will be our joint effort at exploring his writings and ideas, then developing these into more substantial pieces of writing or media to be shared beyond this blog.

Milton worked out his ideas very publicly, often, publishing pamphlets and interacting with others on the issues of his day. I think he would have taken to blogging very well! But then again, maybe he would not have written Paradise Lost if he had been a blogging superstar. In fact, the more I think of it, the less his great masterpiece is like what is done on blogs.

Could blogging be an impediment to knowledge or to creating great art? Does this sort of public, online, informal writing serve the serious purpose of studying and publishing about a famous author? Is a blog a stream in which truth can flow or grow? Or is it a trendy and superficial thing, and are we merely conforming to a current type of popular expression when we could more profitably learn and express ourselves through more traditional means? Give your opinion in the comments.