Heading for a crash

Sometimes I find it a bit overwhelming living here in the future. It's easy to forget that it's the future or to deny it. I can usually convince myself that it can't officially be considered the future yet: there are no flying cars (or not very many at least). But, right now I am holding a glowing flip open electronic box in my lap flipping through a vast ether or information that I am in no way plugged into, while a tiny, sleek glowing box autmatically recharges itself and loads itself with all of the amusing bits of sound and image stored on the flip open electronic box. We carry phones that work wherever we go, store our personal information and, sometimes, take pictures and movies. My email account has figured out the news stories that I will be interested in just by scanning my emails for lists of words (creepy). It's the future and, frankly, it's a bit overstimulating.

Now, granted, I have Ludditious tendencies. I don't own my own laptop or iPod (I just mooch). I still have a big, bulky cathode ray tv. I still watch TV. I still buy CDs (sometimes) and, in caae you haven't figured it out, I don't know html. So, maybe, labelling the present: the future may be a but hyperbolic. But, one thing is certain. The future is coming and it is not going to stop coming.

In spite of my utter lack of tech savvy, I am still able to post my random, poorly organized thoughts so that whoever stumbles across them in this (vomit) global village of (double vomit) cyberspace can read them. McLuhan thought that the global village would bring us all closer together for better or worse. But, I think at some point this continued fragmentation of mass media pushes us further apart. If the medium really is the only message, then, fine, we are all getting the same message of tiny little screens (be it cellphone, video iPod or Blackberry. But, if content matters at all, then this continued insulation will drive away any semblance of community. Mass visual media originated with nickelodeons, but quickly expanded into large movie theaters. People were brought together through a collective psychic experience. Early broadcasting had a two-pronged effect. On the one hand, it pushed us apart by denying us the collective experience of the theater, but on the other with Network broadcasting and, relatively, limited choices, it provided us with larger collective experiences and easy cultural reference points (who didn't love lucy?). With cable and then digital cable and satellite, our choices got broader and we were able to identify ourselves, more and more, not just by what products we bought, but also by what media we consumed (I know Veronica Mars. You know Veronica Mars. We can be friends.). As the internet gets faster and faster and technology gets more advanced and easier to use, more and more people are producing media content. This is increasing our media consumption choices by the thousands every day. It's great that, in theory, everyone can express themselves and be noticed on the internet and it's fantastic that people don't feel like they need a lot of money or the backing of big media anymore. But, as our choices, continue to grow, will anything be able to stand out? Will there be any mass collective psychic reference points that will bind us together as having a common culture?

Right now, the marketers and the technology companies are conspiring to give us everything we ever wanted: a 24 hour, totally personalized media experience. We will have all the music that we like, all the movies we like, all the blogs we like right there at our disposal at all times. We will totally withdraw from the outside world and exist, almost entirely in the world of our choosing. Granted, society won't die out that quickly. If World of Warcraft has taught us anything, it's that people seeking an alternative world in which to live, often pick one that others live in. But, it's happening. This technorevolution came fast (I didn't know anyone with the internet until 1993, now I don't know anyone without, at least, access to it.) It came fast and it has barely begun.

The thing that I worry about is whether our biological/mental evolution can keep up with out technological evolution. Sure, in some places people can craft identities comprised solely of YouTube clips, but elsewhere, people are killing each other by the thousands. It's the fear of The Matrix The Terminator and every post-nuclear Holocaust movie you've ever seen. Eventually, our technology will get so overwhelming that it will practically wipe us out. Whether or not, we wind up having to band together to fight the robots or that gang of motorcycle punks out to steal our potable water, one thing is clear: Our society is totally addicted to technology and, one day, it's going to overdose.