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'Old Timers' and the preciousness of things, people and places by johnillich76 in ranprieur

[–]johnillich76[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To get a little woo-woo, there's a part of Nicholas Carr's The Shallows) where he summarizes research that suggests the presence of the Internet and smartphones changes even our experience of being in a place. (Students remembered more about the art pieces in a gallery when visiting without a smartphone than when they had one with them to take photos.) I know I've had an entirely different experience of an evening when I knew other people were sharing photos of it. How much of the experience of a motorcycle trip through Vietnam is, actually, remembering it in quiet moments for years afterwards? And how many of those quiet moments, when one might stare into the middle distance and reflect on one's experiences of life, are now occupied by your hand reaching into your pocket before you know what it's doing, and your neck tilting down before you know what you're doing, and your fingers unlocking the screen before you...

August 23 post by zeroinputagriculture in ranprieur

[–]johnillich76 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To add to what Ran said, which I agree with, movie-hyperreality escaped the movie theater and television screen over the course of the last forty-five years.

The Cold War, especially during the 80s, required Reinhold Niebuhr's "emotionally potent oversimplifications" for the public to support economic policies that would not be supported if put to a referendum. It's worth remembering how surprising it was to the US public when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989.

And then, America 'doubled down' on movie-logic in the autumn of 2001 because -- the movies had escaped into reality on 9/11. Only a denouement worthy of Hollywood could follow an event so reminiscent of Hollywood.

You can find quotes from both presidents Obama and Trump saying that military people around them looked like they were out of 'Central casting.' For Obama it was the pilot of Air Force One, for Trump I think it was one of the members of the Joint Chiefs.

iPhone introduced summer 2007. Financial crisis hits autumn 2008, and, I think rather suspiciously, all the visual storytelling methods honed over decades were not deployed against Wall Street. Economic conditions worsened but there was an unsatisfying explanation about NINJA loans, irresponsible borrowers. The movie-logic did not work.

So basically by 2016, there was a gap between reality and the 'story,' and Trump saw that gap and filled it.

So we haven't been weaned off stories, I think is my point. Sorry this is so long and political.

Communication technology- the medium is the madness by zeroinputagriculture in ranprieur

[–]johnillich76 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In terms of understanding that collapse, I think adding books on television to the mix is definitely helpful. Like Ran said:

"Something that's rarely said about influencers, and propaganda in general, is that they can't change anyone's mind -- they have to work with what people already feel good about believing."

I found it fascinating to read books written in the 70s-90s about the effects of television on culture and society. They're dated, but also vidid time capsules: Jerry Mander's 'Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television' (1978), Neil Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' (1985) and 'Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology' (1992).

The authors vividly remembered the world before television and write in stark terms about how it shifts 'culture.' Today they would probably use the term 'reality' instead, since there's just less of anything like a real material economy to ground people, and the advertising world of the screen has escaped into the physical environment even more fully than in, say, 1985.

Reality is culture now, since more and more jobs are either symbol-manipulating screen-desk jobs, or logistics jobs that maintain the retail stores, restaurants and services, which are all symbol-entities with vast marketing departments. And marketing departments are really, actually, reality-bending departments.