Confessions of the Digital Age

Posted on April 11, 2007
Filed Under Journal, Society, Spirituality, Consciousness |

Even though I continuously tell myself I shouldn’t judge others – I occasionally find myself bemused at how some people interact with their environment and those within it. It is as though their actions are disjointed from the aims they are trying to achieve. This whole thing is compounded by the influx of social technology. SMS text messaging for example can be a laborious process of confused emotional blows and trade-offs. Naturally, the SMS participants, failing to realise that certain elements of language are not conveyed by the miracles of digital technology, all too often fail to resolve the communication problems that arise.

The movie “Idiocracy”, showed a world of people unable to do much for themselves – simple expedience had dwindled their need to interact with reality. I thought about that movie a lot after watching it, and I realised that stupidity isn’t what will remain once our society removes all the social burdens from us. If technology continues to be the foundations upon which we build – we will fall through that weak foundation for sure. But what we find sure won’t be Idiocracy.

There has been some research done on the nature of digital music. Some studies found that compared to old analogue music, digital music caused stress on the body rather than relaxation. One theory for this suggests that the problem arises from the nature of digital technology, which reduces everything to simple 1’s and 0’s. Something – of course – is lost in the process as the digital recording is merely a replica of the original, rather than a direct copy. The distinction being that old analogue recordings retained much of the emotional and ambient environment – warts and all. Digital recordings on the other hand, do not. Apparently the mind on some subconscious level is able to pick up on this. So it is suggested that the stress arisen from digital records is due to the mind detecting that there is something amiss with what it is hearing.

“I have tested many thousands of phonograph recordings recorded over a period of over eighty years, and it has been found that almost without exception this music has been therapeutic,[3] often highly so. In fact, it has been used for stress reduction, relaxation, general tonification, analgesia, as part of modified acupuncture techniques, and as adjunctive therapy in drug withdrawal programs. Music has also been used in programs to overcome fears and phobias, alleviate insomnia, and even for the “tranquilization” of acutely disturbed psychotic patients.

In 1979 this changed. I suddenly found that I was not achieving the same therapeutic results as before, that playing records of the same compositions to the same patients was producing a completely contrary effect! Instead of their stress being reduced and their Life Energy being actuated, the opposite was occurring. Music examples that I had long used to promote sleep now seemed to be actually aggravating the insomnia. And I found in one case that instead of the music helping a patient withdraw from tranquilizers, it seemed to increase his need for them. Special tapes for businessmen to use during their rest periods seemed suddenly to increase rather than reduce their stress. These findings were very alarming.”

http://www.foodintegrity.com/article.php?news_id=25

So I am wondering if something similar is happening to some people; particularly those under the age of say, 25. As they build up around themselves a profile that is digitally orientated, something vital is dropping away from their very essence. As we place our identity online and consider it the epitome of our being – we are becoming 1’s and 0’s. Falling downwards to a level where we will eventually bottom out as a creation of the digital age.

What develops when as an individual we don’t see or hear anything more than muted words in our conversations? In the absence of vocal tone, body language, and physical displays of emotion; when a website profile contains only the elements of ourselves we deem worthy of presenting. To where do we look for inspiration; the realms of television, the idols of music and the memes of movies? And there we find nothing more than confirmation that the materialistic digital life is the right path – the correct way of living. So with that in mind people continue to plod ever onwards.

Can a relationship last when it is built upon personalities that attempt to mimic what we are taught by our media?

Digital technology isn’t just about removing the essence of our very reality. On a deeper level it has the ability to cut straight through to our sub-conscious traits. It only takes a quick look at any one of the millions of Internet forums to confirm that fact.

So here I am wondering if mannerisms and messy interaction within the realms of those very forums will, via the miracles of digital technology, manifest into the real world itself. And I realise that this is simply how it has always been! We have always lived in our minds – in our own crazy little worlds. I know personally that things didn’t start to become straight until I finally wizened up and began to match my internal being with the external reality. So yeah – people have always created their own little pockets of manufactured reality, from the gossip at the local post office – to the corporate rules, and neighbourhood schemes. The difference is that now our digital world cannot communicate the lies we tell ourselves – because it lacks the emotional nuances. What we are left with is the bear faced truth of our sub-conscious mind. At the moment it’s causing us all sorts of trouble, because we haven’t yet realised what is going on.

But that day of realisation is coming. Slowly the layers upon layers of self erected bullshit are being lifted, and we are finding that we can’t hide from ourselves any longer.