TOPIC:ISSUE 7 - "The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records."
WORDS:531 TIME:0:54:28 DATE:2006-1-17
The developing technology has provided us an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life, for example the video camera. Maybe someone would argue that the accurate video camera has become a more important form of documentation than former written records. In my opinion, this new technology can hardly replace written records and all we have to do is to try to combine them together.
Admittedly, the video camera gives us a more wonderful picture of our real life. One of its best advantages is convenience. Unlike the writing, this electrical equipment could easily catch a picture only by pushing a button. The operator has nothing to do more than choosing the object to record. Second, the information which is taken down completely contains the outside world and events so that it is almost impossible for the operator to add his/her thought or orientation to it. On the contrary written records are much more objective than the video camera, which may consequently contain some mistakes or false information (for example we can easily make mistakes when we try to remind a event which happened yesterday).Further, the video camera contributes greatly to the preserve of important historical documents, since it can use a software, which has excellent duration to save the pictures, while traditional paper records would be easily destroyed by bugs, fires, or rainwater.
Nevertheless, it is unwise to neglect the benefit of paper-writing. Firstly, paper has a large capacity than video camera. Let’s think about such an occasion: when we use a video camera to record a complicated event (a wedding or a parade), we can only choose to record just a small part of the event for an instant, which means we may lose other important information. And the camera can only last for a limited time--maybe 30 minutes or less--which means it should not be used to cover the whole process of a long-time event(for example, a war).However writing do not have the defeats above. Writers can record the whole event from the different angles of views: who are involved in the war? What is the whole progress and final result? What is the exact death toll of each side? Also writing exceeds the limit of time. Homer wrote the epic Iliad which record a tough war lasted for ten years in just a hundreds-of-pages book. What’s more, paper is much more cheaper which makes sure that written records would become more popular among ordinary people.
It is hard to decide which is more indispensable between paper records and camera records, and the best answer to this topic is that man ought to learn to put such two methods together to better serve themselves. As is discussed above, the video camera is an objective method. It tells us accurately what happened before. However written records tend to be more subjective. The authors always like to reflect their own opinions--which are deeply influenced by the temporal values and culture-- in their works. As a result, by reading the works, we can approximately depict the social condition which the authors live in. Take Iliad for instance again: in this book Homer tells us the thoughts and actions of people in the Greek Dark Ages, which allow us to get a glimpse of the real life thousands of years before.
In conclusion, it is partial to say the video camera is better than written records. The more proper saying is that they have to be used together to serve for our human beings.