Digital Feedback and Shifting Consciousness

Posted on January 3, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Fake Culture, Consciousness |

We are in a time where human consciousness is changing on many different levels. One aspect of this great change is being heavily influenced by computers and other technology, and the feedback we receive from them.

Each of us tends to have a different perspective on reality, and that perspective is generally based upon feedback. Feedback comes in many forms; the feedback of our physical senses, the feedback of our own emotions and feelings, and the feedback of reactions from other people. There are also many other forms of feedback with which we associate during the course of our lives.

So part of a persons understanding of reality is built upon what they have learnt from various feedback, it is a process which slowly develops from the time we are born; as a baby we learn to associate with the feedback from our senses, in early childhood we learn to associate with the feedback of our emotions. In later childhood the feedback comes from our parents and teachers. Finally in adulthood the feedback is from society and the pseudo-reality which is all around us.

That is how it has always been, and the process went essentially unchanged for millennia. But with the advent of machines things began to change. And now in an age where computer systems are all around us, it is starting to change us. Computers create a unique of feedback. Of course it isn’t limited to computers; cell phones, video games, the Internet, all of these things provide us with forms of feedback which have never before existed.

The feedback comes in a number of forms; generally speaking human and digital. Human feedback is of course, other users of the technology; for example texts from cell phone users, blogs, social networks and forums on the Internet, game players in the online virtual worlds. In many respects this is a shift in dynamic for human communications. Internet forums often lack social-etiquette because there is no need for social responsibility. Texting allows for constant unending communication of the most mundane information. Virtual worlds are a shift away from any form of physical reality.

Digital feedback is different in that it only requires one participant; the user. When working with computers, we have to work in a set manner as dictated by the software. Video games, reward successful playing, and many game players build a part of their personal identity upon their gaming ability.

All the above remove certain elements from human interactions which have always existed. Conversely the technology also allows for far greater feedback than ever before; vast quantities of information, networking with like-minded people from all over the world, the ability to live in non-physical worlds, and so on.

Grouped together, and over time these forms of feedback create a new and different perspective of reality. Today, we are overwhelmed with feedback, so much so that it has become background noise. Even if we don’t consciously pay attention to it, it is still there. Any feedback we don’t consciously process gets dumped into our sub-conscious, and it forms elements of who we are and who we become.

So, it’s becoming increasingly important that we are intentional in our use of this technology. If we interact with that technology in an unintentional manner, we remain unaware of the full extent of the impact it may have upon us – and the shift in consciousness we experience may not be for the best.

Yet intentional and conscious attention to the feedback can help propel us to new heights. As always then, it is a matter of awareness – after which it becomes a matter of choice.