Journal Response 2

Networks, writing, and materiality are all related and dependent on each other when communicating a message to an audience. It would first begin with the materiality and the writing, which are connected to each other because the materiality is the material or medium that the writing is going to be posted or put on. The materiality is very important for communicating a message because depending on the source you write the message on, the audience will interpret it in different ways. For instance, if a person receives an email about 20% discount for a department store and another person receives that same discount through a letter in her mailbox, it is more likely that the person who received the discount through the mail will actually go to the store and use it. This is because the letter in the mail is a physical, material object, which can be more significant than just a simple email that will most likely be lost in the online inbox. 

The networks are also involved in this stream of communication. Networks are important for distributing information throughout a large group of people. The materiality of the message that the person chooses depends on the network they want to reach and distribute their message. For instance, large businesses and companies prefer using social networks to advertise and reach a large amount of people in a short amount of time. Various restaurants and fast-food chains use Twitter as a way to make “jokes” and popular culture references in their tweets to make as many people retweet them as possible and reach millions of users from all around the world to promote their products. This way of advertisement is much more rapid and simpler and cost-efficient than having a paper ad in the walls of buildings.

Another example of how networks, writing, and materiality are connected is by the way that we communicate with family and friends. Most of us are away from our families since we are in college, so at least in my case, my mom always tends to write me messages on Facebook (a network) to catch up. The difference in the materiality between Facebook, an online social network, and writing me a postcard, is that online I can see the message in a matter of seconds and there could be rapid communication back and forth. The writing of the message and the content is one thing that can affect the materiality because if the message is something that has significance, such as a birthday, then most people would really love to receive a postcard instead of a post of their Facebook wall.