It doesn't take too much of a hard look to notice that somethings just aren't right with the world. But I had one of those moments this morning, during a conversation, where I stumbled upon a thought about another possible difference of bias between the Gutenberg era and the device era.
I wonder if the whole print culture doesn't have a tendency to point us backwards in time to look for solutions whilst the technology culture has a tendency to point us forwards.
Print media preserves. The printing press enable solutions to be preserved and distributed across vast distances. Print media therefore operate well to provide solutions, already existing, into situations now arisen.
Technological media speeds up. Technology is so fast that it creates solutions for problems we haven't even identified yet. Technological media therefore operate well to bring solutions, in anticipation of the problems, prior to situations arising.
Yeah, these are broad sweeping generalisations....and this is but a blog....but am I the only one that has noticed how those of us accustomed to the print way of life, see the past as a better place to start looking for solutions than the future? Or do others see that the old adage of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" no longer has value in our technological milieu? Something not being broken might just mean that we haven't created the solution yet!
I finished the day with another conversation which reinforced for me how the Christian faith calls for us to live in faith, hope and love. I think this has a unique perspective whereby faith points us towards the past in what God has done in history (most comprehensively in Jesus); hope points us towards the future (and the promised return of Jesus where things are made new) and love points us towards the present (to make known the reality of the past and the future in the present).
media - technology - theology - faith - communication - education - community - life
"In Jesus Christ, there is no distance or separation between the medium and the message:
it is the one case where we can say that the medium and the message are fully one and the same."
Marshall McLuhan
Hey Adam,
ReplyDeleteI've had a similar conversation recently actually. Technology does not only present itself but with it a whole new way of thinking, understanding and basically a different worldview. I think it's also caused a bigger divide in generational gaps because of this reason. Situations are dealt with different, problem solving is a precautionary task taken ahead of time. I also see this limiting the spontaneity of youth on occasion... If you're bringing your gadgets, you need to bring this cord and that cord and the back up battery and the alternate charger... etc, etc.
Anyway, I enjoyed today's read, thank you.
Gabi