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technology, change, and stasis

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Greg Gauthier 2022-07-19 22:29:39 +01:00
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@ -39,9 +39,9 @@ In other words, we have at our fingertips, *all the times, all the time*.
Setting aside the well-worn problem of information overload (which is true, but has been beaten to death), there are other more pressing concerns, in my view. Namely, before these technologies, it was once the case that each generation constructed its own narrative of creation, history, and identity for itself, and some slightly modified version of that would get passed down to the next generation, and the old would pass out of existence. The social world of the man of 1922 and the social world of the man of 1982 are not just different by virtue of the passage of time, but also by the necessity to reconstruct the world anew, each generation.
But now, because of technology that allows us to capture, record, and reproduce nearly all of the sights, sounds, experiences and attitudes of accumulating generations, we have a situation in which three or four generations of competing social narratives remain active constantly,*all the time*. And it seems to be smothering the upcoming generations, who are given a world in which Frank Sinatra and Cardi B, or Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, or Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Smits, all have equal footing.
But now, because of technology that allows us to capture, record, and reproduce nearly all of the sights, sounds, experiences and attitudes of accumulating generations, we have a situation in which three or four generations of competing social narratives remain active constantly, *all the time*. And it seems to be smothering the upcoming generations, who are given a world in which Frank Sinatra and Cardi B, or Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, or Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Smits, all have equal footing.
I think one of the symptoms of this problem, can be seen in the fact that modern pop musicians filmmakers don't seem to be able to construct narratives of their own anymore. Everything is a "reboot", a "prequel", a "reset", or a "remix". They seem only capable of digging up the corpses of past generations, re-animating them, dancing them around like puppets, and dangling the artefacts created by those characters in front of our faces. Star Wars premiered in 1977. By 1997, I was sure that was the last I'd see of Ben Kenobi or Luke Skywalker. But somehow, their skin suits keep re-appearing, year after year after year. And it doesn't stop with star wars. Every single major film franchise of the 1970s and 1980s is constantly recycled. In music, the recycling comes in the form of dismemberment and reassembly. Whenever I'm in a restaurant or mall, I am frequently accosted by the sound of a song I haven't heard since the 1970s. But it's not the song. It's fragments of it, dissected out of the song, and sewn into an electronic beatbox rhythm generator. It's way worse than "creative remix". It's reappropriation for the purpose of monetization, on an industrial scale. All made not only possible, but ridiculously easy, by digital technology.
I think one of the symptoms of this problem, can be seen in the fact that modern pop musicians and filmmakers don't seem to be able to construct narratives of their own anymore. Everything is a "reboot", a "prequel", a "reset", or a "remix". They seem only capable of digging up the corpses of past generations, re-animating them, dancing them around like puppets, and dangling the artefacts created by those characters in front of our faces. Star Wars premiered in 1977. By 1997, I was sure that was the last I'd see of Ben Kenobi or Luke Skywalker. But somehow, their skin suits keep re-appearing, year after year after year. And it doesn't stop with star wars. Every single major film franchise of the 1970s and 1980s is constantly recycled. In music, the recycling comes in the form of dismemberment and reassembly. Whenever I'm in a restaurant or mall, I am frequently accosted by the sound of a song I haven't heard since the 1970s. But it's not the song. It's fragments of it, dissected out of the song, and sewn into an electronic beatbox rhythm generator. It's way worse than "creative remix". It's reappropriation for the purpose of monetization, on an industrial scale. All made not only possible, but ridiculously easy, by digital technology.
What the latest generations coming online don't seem to have, is any sense of *themselves*, any clear narrative about their place in the cosmos, their purpose on earth, and the future they want to see. All they seem to know, is what is happening *right now*, and how can I navigate the social landscape in *this moment*, to avoid any penalties. And the cultural accumulations of the past three or four generations made possible by technology, are both an ever-present attic to be picked through for its utility, and an ever-present imposition on the psyche making demands and setting standards no longer possible to achieve.