George Dafermos' Weblog

17 January 2004

The Medium is the Meaning...we consume and create

says Jon Husband. The thought-provoking entry makes the argument that we're moving away from the medium is the message world to the medium is the meaning era. "Perhaps the medium is becoming the meaning we want to and will create."

many ideas come to mind. although i despise the term social software (social networking software is only marginally better), i have to agree with Jon that with the advent of the malleable, writeable web, we've come a step closer to a global brain galvanised by human connections. thing is, as i see it, the global brain will not be realised by hardware and software interconnectedness alone; and for better or worse, cyberspace allows us to build a virtual straightjacket around us, refusing access to anything that doesn't reflect our wants, beliefs, and notions. it's like becoming obsessed with your own world, and all in the sudden become ecstatic about the unique possibility of creating a world that is customised to your likin. but let's press forward for a minute.

Jon says the medium is becoming the meaning. true. the Internet reflects our own self-inflicted, DIY-inspired, and derived, passion to self-organise and self-rule, and this is partly why so much optimism can be found in books like cluetrain and small pieces loosely joined.

Self-rule: the ability to organise one's life and work without respect for formal hierarchies, rigid organisational models, and short-sighted mental maps. on these grounds, it's not hard to understand why we place so many of our hopes on the success of the Internet....we truly, and honestly, hope it brings about a better world, and a life where we are the ones pulling the strings. me included. optimism is always a vaccination stronger than pessimism, and as a consequence, the medium has indeed become the message. The tension though that needs to be reconcilled is, as Charles Leadbeater writes in the excellent Up the Down Escalator:

Self-rule is about knowing when to make choices yourself and when to delegate that power to other people. it requires up to be open to the views of other people, with whom we may disagree, rather than lock ourselves away in our personalised world. thanks in large part to the spread of digital technology, we citizens and consumers have much greater power to make choices. the challenge will be how we educate ourselves to use this power creatively and responsively. (pp.231)

then, there's the question of the disenfranchised - the have-nots. For any medium to become the meaning we seek in our lives, the medium itself should embed characteristics that appeal to those trying to rise up the social, corporate, economic, demographic, sexual ladder. and this is where the magic of the Internet kicks in. In a world where most of our collective cultural experiences have been appropriated by the commercial sphere, and are now on offer on the shelves of the Ministry of Sound, Donna Karan, Nike and Adidas, the Internet offers something that has remained pure and intact - human connections. Despite the fact that someone always has to own the servers, most online communities are not commercial-oriented, at least not in the conscious knowledge of their members.

i dropped by a friend who's a DJ earlier tonight. he said there was a house -music event going on, but he's skint , and he needed more than 70E to gain admittance to the fabulous cultural priesthood of the chemical generation as typified by a dancefloor packed with youth, sweat, beat and c-substance trembling to the sounds of hard house. so, not having those 70E , he 'd spend the night in. on my way out, he said" fuck it, i'll get online, ftp some songs to and from friends, and some more downloads from Kazaa, have a chat over IM, and get some quality news on what's going down". well, when physical world culture asks explicitly for your dime, and you have none, cyberspace provides a backdoor to a different, not better or worse, just different dimension of the very same culture, provided of course you can pay your ISP bills, afford a computer, and a phone line. yet, it's a step forward.

it''s getting late....

2:49:51 AM

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