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| Photo by Decur |
In Nancy Baym's book, Personal Connections in the Digital Age, she claims that rhetoric about electronic communication matters because it is reflective-- it is one of the best places to see the desires and fears of an individual or a society.
Since I started "Meditating on Media", many people who read my blog have expressed to me their perspectives about living in the digital age, and often send me links to interesting dialog about digital media. This past week, My friend Chestina shared some interesting art with me that critiques our use of technology, specifically social media. I want to try to speculate a bit on what deeper concerns these signify.
The critique is in the form of a set of images that got popularized online with the hashtag #ThisGeneration (I've included a few below but see here for more). The images are a set of photoshoped memes made by Ajit Johnson Nirmal that illustrate the current generation as having too big of a dependency on technology. The images were featured on the artist's tumblr at the end of March and received over 140,000 notes in one week.
These images have resonated with some viewers, quick to vent about how disconnected and lazy the internet makes us, but others have gotten very defensive about such claims. Many parodies have been made to reverse the anti-technology claims, and are circulating Tumblr right now. Additionally, another hashtag has emerged to counter these claims: #LastGeneration (see twitter screen shots below for various examples).
By looking at the original memes and the following reactions on social media, we can see that talking about electronic communication has stirred the emotions of many, allowing us to see some of our cultural fears and hopes more clearly. The original artwork shows a concern that we are addicted to technology-- choosing it over books and even over water, which is isolating us and making us dumb down our experiences of life. Many responses counter this by pointing out the irony of using a hashtag and social media to bash that very electronic media. Others have responded by pointing out the positive affordances of new media (like @LaurenEldekvist above).
What does this all say about our society? Well, a lot. There are infinite interpretations of how we could use this art and its responses to speculate on what's going on in our society's collective psyche. That's why it's so cool to look not only at how people are using media, but how people are talking about it!
I think the biggest underlying theme that I've taken away from looking through the #ThisGeneration posts is that modern technology has truly become ubiquitous in our culture, which is comforting for some people and terrifying for others. As for me, I feel the whole spectrum.
Our current means of electronic communication have basically become necessities. I don't think I could practically make it through school at all without a computer to do research on, write papers, or receive important information via email and web updates. I also don't think I could emotionally make it through school without my phone to connect me to loved ones hundreds of miles away, or coordinate with my friends and peers close by. Clearly, I don't need this communication technology for my basic survival needs, but I do need it to maintain the current lifestyle I enjoy. That scares me!
I am afraid of being dependent on this technology because it costs money to make and maintain, which is a source of stress for me. I also think about how this technology costs the environment in the forms of resources and energy. This technology has social costs, including the exploitation of labor to make it. This technology has health costs, such as potentially harmful radiation and the debatable psychological addiction. Yet despite all of this, I use these devices everyday, and so does pretty much everyone else I encounter. It makes life easier, more fun, and helps us stay connected to each other and aware of what is happening in the world. Even those criticizing our use of electronic communication are doing so through this technology.
Anyone who has been keeping up with my blog posts for the past few months knows that I am critical of our use of technology, but also incredibly optimistic about all of the opportunity it opens up. I have talked about how it can be used to spread happiness, how it can create community spaces, how it can contribute to emotional healing, and more. The internet has catalyzed many social movements and brought about justice for marginalized people whose voices wouldn't otherwise have as far of a reach. Overall, my Interpersonal Media studies in conjunction with my daily experiences using digital media show me just how complex and nuanced our use of these technologies is.
I am part of a generation that incorporates electronic devices into almost all aspects of life. I don't desire or foresee us reverting from this position, but I do hope that we can move forward more mindfully. Having discussion about the harms and benefits of our media usage is important. Being self-aware of the amount of time spent online is healthy. And I strongly feel that taking into account the social and environmental costs is something we need to have more dialog about, all generations.
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| Photo By MERIMART |
~* What do you think the #ThisGeneration art and responses says about the fears and hopes of our culture? How do you see us moving forward? *~
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