Moderns and New Media

Contrast with the ancient world

Modern philosophers pushed against the status quo of the ancient worldview that there were standards embedded in the Platonic heavens or in things themselves. It was believed that all things sought to become more like and moved toward their potentialities of the ideal thing that was somehow defined in nature. The modern philosophers, however, abandoned this view and focused on the divide between what exists and what we bring to the world.

Primary and secondary qualities

The modern view is that there are two types of qualities; primary and secondary. Primary qualities are those that actually are part of the thing itself and secondary are those we bring to it. Because our senses are part of us and not the thing itself, colors, feeling, beauty, goodness, and usefulness are all secondary qualities that we bring. It was also believed that people are generally the same and will place the same value on things. 

Hume vs. Kant

Hume taught that value is subjective but is only determined by a select group; those with unimpaired discernment and taste. In other words, beauty is in the eye of the unimpaired beholder. Kant believed differently. He taught that non-aesthetic values are standards to be accepted by everyone and that aesthetic values are judgments to be made by every individual for him or herself. In other words, beauty is in the eye of those who enjoy coming up with concepts.

Social websites in the light of modern philosophy

These concepts can be applied to our new media in a variety of ways:

• Provide all visitors to a website to cast their own lens on the website. They may be able to set preferences as to things they would like to see or an emphasis on certain topics. This may be as broad as choosing whether they would like to critique or be critiqued or as narrow as focusing only on Plato or some other philosopher. It may be worthwhile to build rich user profiles in order to provide the most relevant content.
• There should be a certain distinction for those that are qualified as an "unimpaired beholder." These people can be given special attention and receive a stamp of approval on their comments or edits. 
• Those that enjoy coming up with concepts can be given opportunities to build out an analysis of how to apply the philosophies to new media.
• Finally, the website should help people to move along on their path toward becoming master critics. There is a new trend of "gamification" in many aspects of business and recreation. Because of shorter attention spans and the fatigue users experience when going through long projects or articles, producer of content seek to gamify the experience, maintaining the viewer more engaged. The website could have profiles for each visitor that increase in influence/points when the user does certain tasks.