Social media in the 16th Century: How Luther Went Viral

[salvorhardin]

The unintentional but rapid spread of the “95 Theses” alerted Luther to the way in which media passed from one person to another could quickly reach a wide audience. “They are printed and circulated far beyond my expectation,” he wrote in March 1518 to a publisher in Nuremberg who had published a German translation of the theses. But writing in scholarly Latin and then translating it into German was not the best way to address the wider public. Luther wrote that he “should have spoken far differently and more distinctly had I known what was going to happen.” For the publication later that month of his “Sermon on Indulgences and Grace”, he switched to German, avoiding regional vocabulary to ensure that his words were intelligible from the Rhineland to Saxony. The pamphlet, an instant hit, is regarded by many as the true starting point of the Reformation.

...

Modern society tends to regard itself as somehow better than previous ones, and technological advance reinforces that sense of superiority. But history teaches us that there is nothing new under the sun. Robert Darnton, an historian at Harvard University, who has studied information-sharing networks in pre-revolutionary France, argues that “the marvels of communication technology in the present have produced a false consciousness about the past—even a sense that communication has no history, or had nothing of importance to consider before the days of television and the internet.” Social media are not unprecedented: rather, they are the continuation of a long tradition. Modern digital networks may be able to do it more quickly, but even 500 years ago the sharing of media could play a supporting role in precipitating a revolution. Today’s social-media systems do not just connect us to each other: they also link us to the past.
Full essay: http://www.economist.com/node/21541719

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Marshall Mcluhan 'The Gutenberg Galaxy ' shows

how the printed word revolutionized thought.Todays technology is used to carry on esotric conversations that exclude all, but a small group of like minded people ,so instead of 500 yrs ago where Media grew the world now it divides and shrinks it.

[elleng]

2. Thanks! Nothing like history!

[salvorhardin]

3. I like the recognition that social media exists independent of technology

Technology can enhance, and speed, social media, but any media produced by social animals is by default social media.