A Social Earthquake at the Hands of Social Media?

The Age of Earthquakes by Basar, Coupland, and Obrist was a text built outside of society’s constructs of
language. For this reason, the piece was very confusing and yet still very informative. The definitions
throughout the book were intriguing explaining words that usually would not be think about. I liked the
images that were used throughout the book, they further illustrated the main ideas. The book added another
lense to the idea of language being fluid and never staying the same, constantly changing.

The book was mainly confusing in the way it flowed. Most of the pages had few words on them but some
of the pages had many words. The changing lengths of the pages made the flow seem choppy, although,
this helped the book by showing the text in a similar way it could be read on social media it also made it
difficult to follow along. Also, the shape, direction, and size of the words were changing throughout the
book making it difficult to follow along.

I agree that social media may be causing a cultural and social earthquake in the definition of who we are as
people, however, I do believe that it can be used for good and that it is not all harmful to society. Everything
can harmful when it is used too much, but with being able to use something so powerful comes having great
responsibility. Having social media and such things is a lot of power, whether there will be bad
consequences or not is dependent on each user individually.

In conclusion, I believe that the Age of Earthquakes is trying to teach society an important lesson. Though it may be presented in a confusing manner at first glance, the effect of this is necessary to portraying the main idea.

[298 words]

Joanna Joseph, 3A, Hendricks