Introduction
This reflective treatise attempts to explicitly present a summary of my experience without the internet for twenty-four hours. Besides, the treatise relates these experiences to functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interaction theories.
Internet blackout experience
The introduction of communication via the internet has liberated communication and made it efficient and cost-effective. Reflectively, it has come with a series of benefits such as reliability, privacy, and personalized control. At present, by a click of a button, an individual is in a position to communicate with the entire world. Last week, I spent 24 hours away from the internet. During the blackout, I was not able to visit Facebook, fashion, and e-newspaper sites, which have become part of my daily activities.
The internet blackout was a disturbing experience. Before the outage, I did not know that mass media had a powerful influence on the scope of my interaction, exchange of information, and expressing freedom to my peers. Despite turning my attention to the newspapers in the house, I could not think upright since I was procrastinating on my daily activities on Facebook and the fun I was missing.
After four hours into the blackout, I decided to pass the time by engaging some older family members in a conversation. I realized that the age gap presented a considerable challenge in my interaction with them since I could not identify myself with their stories. The rest of the day dragged by, and I was convinced that the internet is an essential tool of communication. It has a significant influence on personal identity and group culture.
Theoretical reflection
Symbolic interaction
The development of the internet over the years is an expression of revolutionary inspirations of a mass society to quantify the role of symbolic interaction in the exchange of information. Therefore, the development of internet communication in the community is inspired by the ideas that the mass society considers essential and promotes the system of informal groupings in society. The story of the internet has eventually culminated in the creation of a culture that I found very difficult to live without during the blackout.
Functionalism
The internet media play a significant role in the process of defining and forming social consciousness and its limits towards achieving social change in the modern world characterized by informal interaction. In theoretical conception, functionalism believes that mass media revolution and solidarity as agents of communication would facilitate the occurrence of revolutionary modes of reception and functioning of different target audiences. In fact, I could not relate the stories of my seniors during the blackout since the internet had created a comfortable peer culture with friends of my age group.
Conflict theory
Through embracing the internet blackout period, it was tough for me to identify the aspects of self-disclosure, positivity, and social networking. I lacked the assuring factors that promoted the effectiveness of mass cultural modes across the generational divides to manage the cross-generational conflicts. The change has been inspired by authenticity longing that clouds the memory of a person to actually experience the absolute real from the enclosures of the norms of the society. Therefore, I noted that understanding the mass culture possible through expressions, illustrations, and even reactions of an internet user.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the paradigm shift in the internet blackout mechanism was defined by manipulation and low interactivity levels. Further, my lack of internet interaction during the 24 hours blackout negatively affected the aspects of functionalism, symbolic business, and conflict resolution with people who belong to different social identities.