Our generation is characterized by subjective experience. Before us, our parents were objective interpretive and further back, things were subjective interpretive. We can see this trend as both a result of media and in media.
Before newspapers and tv, people got news slowly. Letters took weeks to arrive and there were no images. Therefore, news about wars or events could only be transmitted either through someone’s interpretation or through your own since you would be removed from the event in time and space. The time and space removal existed because it was a time when you wouldn’t always have immediate access to paper and a pen, and would therefore be unable to record the event. Instead, most events would have to wait til you got home when you could sit down in your study to write your letter. This process leads to time for one to process and condense the experience before recording it. We can see this even more clearly further back say in antiquity when finding paper to write it down would be difficult if not impossible. The lack of images also meant that a writer would have to use imagination and description to attempt to recreate the event and we know how well that usually goes (eg. the game telephone).
When newspapers and ultimately television came about, information became objective interpretive. The time to interpret was shortened and therefore, an event could be more accurately recorded. For example, television news came on in the evening and newspapers told of yesterday’s news. Furthermore, the use of images caused a shift from the need to describe a point of view using words to presenting it in the form of a photo or video. Multiple images also allowed for there to be an overview of the situation and therefore, a shared experience helped create a more objective perspective. Reality would still be interpreted but since it was done by a professional group of individuals that shared an experience, it became more objective than the past.
Once the internet came about, this shorten the time between an event to recording it to nil. Twitter, facebook updates and livefeeds cause the world we perceive to be subjective experience. We no longer have anytime to process and interpret events. Everything shared with us and that we share is often while we are still experiencing it. Take for example the use of twitter during the riots this week in San Francisco or in Haiti during the earthquake. The sheer volume of information pushes our perception of the world over any sort of objectivity because there is no longer a group with that goal in mind. Instead we have countless strangers who come with unknown presumptions sharing what they understand to be reality. Reality therefore becomes subjective as the experience is shared with the world but not shared in the sense of collaboration. Similarly, it is no longer interpretive but experiential as technology has closed the gap of time between the happening of an event and our recording of it.
I write all this not to slam contemporary movements in perception but simply to note the differences. For the differences make all the difference when we read texts that are from different periods. It makes all the difference also when we interact with people from the different eras. I thought about these typologies as I was preparing for my sermon on the birth narrative of Jesus. There must have been at least 40 years in between the time of the event to the time of the recording. How do I understand a text like that in the light of my world? Furthermore, how do I understand the birth of Moses which was probably recorded even later with none of the eye witnesses still alive expect for maybe Miriam?
On a final note: my promise to blog weekly still stands but I should mention that some of these posts are sensitive or unfinished so will remain secret until I deem them acceptable for public viewing. You know, in an attempt to separate intimacy and privacy on the net. Also I joined FourSquare in an attempt to explore our generation
Filed under: Uncategorized, generation, technology, twitter
