Saturday, October 03, 2009

THE WEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE


Above all else I am an incurable Coherentist.

My insatiable curiousity compels me to assemble a manageable cosmology.

I want to understand as much of the Who, What, When, Where, Why and HOW I am who Iam..
and why the world around me and everyone in it, is the way IT IS!

I started Blogging because I realised that this medium is amazing. Although I am limited by my brain and all of it's inherited pre & post conditioning, I want to find my Oasis of Homeostasis; a workable balance of unrelated thingamabobs..Coherentism.

And I want it all funnelled into neat and tidy little packages with a ribbon on top...
but I am also very aware that I am an insufferable hodge-podgerist prone to smush ideas and factoids together even if they don't fit.


The fact that YOU are reading this means that you have voluntarily engaged in becoming part of this experience via the Next Wave. This Tofflerian-McLuhanian Matrix known as the Global Village.
We are out here networking because the old model of Hierarchies failed miserably. Blind faith in leaders is no longer acceptable because it doesn't work.

The Information Revolution has levelled the playing field and now any of us can have access to most of the information that our trusted Leaders once used to dominate us.

Why should those grossly over-compensated leaders reap all the rewards when we were doing all the work?

We keep the ball rolling not them.
Enough of that bullsh*t!

So here we are. Information is and always has been the most powerful form of currency on the planet. We are attempting to attain control over our lives..something no other generation has ever accomplished.
We want to think and make decisions for ourselves..and the old Matrix doesn't like it.

However, we all may just end up becoming cyber-cogs in some huge global melting pot of presumed universal ideals.

Fellow Canuck Marshall McLuhan coined the term Global Village back in the 60's.

"McLuhan wrote that the visual, individualistic print culture would soon be brought to an end by what he called "electronic interdependence":
when electronic media replace visual culture with aural/oral culture.

In this new age, humankind will move from individualism and fragmentation to a collective identity, with a "tribal base." McLuhan's coinage for this new social organization is the
global village.

The idea that technology has no per se moral bent -- it is a tool that profoundly shapes an individual's and, by extension, a society's self-conception and realizationMcLuhan proposed that
media themselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study –-
popularly quoted as "the medium is the message."

Ok let's look at his tetrad theory about how each medium inter-reacts.

Wiki uses the Radio example.
Radio was supposedly going to kill newspapers.

Radio is a sound medium that amplified the importance of voice and music. Radio relied on limiting the importance of print and visuals.


The next logical step was a morphing of the two into Television...which in turn gave birth to the Personal Computer which puts every person in charge of operating their own Radio/Tv/Newspaper or Magazine that offers both audio and visual aspects...
and all with a level of immediacy and intimacy that none of the other mediums can compete with.

Advertisers are jumping off those old Media like rats on a sinking ship. Conglomporations and Advertisers already know this and they are desperately trying to control the Internet. They want to be back in the driver's seat.


The Conglomporations want to control and pillage the global village.

The Internetted Computer is why we are seeing the BIG Newspapers start to falter, CD sales dwindle, Broadcast Tv fading, the Book market is next.

Video killed the Radio Star but the PC will kill them all...to some extent yet to be determined.

Where does that leave us?

McLuhan's collective global village is still in it's infancy and it is choking on cliches and archetypes.


We can still lump Blogs into categories but I've noticed that most of you can express yourselves in multiple ways.

We don't need to box ourselves in but we do because we've been trained to think that way.

Now we can interact with individuals anywhere in the world anytime.
We are the ME in MEdium.
Welcome to the WEDIUM Neo.
WE are the message and the messengers.

Like it or not it is on! Right now cyberstars are recreating the successful aspects of the previous mediums but as we figure out how to do more out here, this too will change. Imagine a world with 6 Billion Stations?

Have you noticed that the number of Celebrities seems to be growing exponentially out here? There was a finite number of Movie Stars when I was a kid back in the 60s..now I couldn't possibly name or keep track of all of them.

We finally realised that there are millions of incredibly talented people out here...not just a handful like our previous generations were led to believe. Millions.

There is more information out here than we can handle...too many Blogs, too many Twitterers..remember we can only handle about 150 relationships.

So the rest of all this crap out here is going to gel and morph and become some sort of collective conscience. Big Brother meets the Matrix at the cyber water cooler. Physical borders will blur and our global village will become a part of our reality...as real as the real world.


Now do you want the Red Pill and see how deep Carroll's Alicinian rabbit-hole goes?

Or the
Blue Pill:
the story ends, you wake up, and you believe whatever you want to believe.





19 comments:

  1. remember we can only handle about 150 relationships.

    Then someone is going to have to get crossed off my Blogroll!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 150 relationships? does that include one night stands cos I'm over my quota.

    Chris Rock made a good point. He said if 'Ignorance is bliss' then being super aware must be hell.

    It is sometimes and I envy those who have taken the blue pill but instead of a silver spoon in my mouth I was born with a red pill in my mouth.

    I'm on the Interweb to seek out like minded people as those about me are morons. A pink monkey can recognise another pink monkey even on the line.

    Not millions of talented people, millions of dross and a few bits of brilliant in amongst it all.

    I can't keep track of all the stars either, I used to be MR pop culture. I got 15 out of 15 on that 80's test on facebook but then they wanted all my details which annoyed me.

    So because you have a computer you must have a mobile phone? I don't and don't want one, competitions on the telly say text so and so to win ........ nice try. Newspapers cut sections and raise the price .... nice try. Dickheads want to charge for every e-mail sent .... nice try.

    DVD's are getting phased out because of Blue-ray, I haven't even gotten used to DVD's or CD yet. Everything used to be more simple.

    ReplyDelete
  3. so there it is...so many people, so little time? or is it the same group, just dressed differently? i seem to circulate with the same sort of people here that i do in my everyday life, there are just more of all ya'll. but then, that's really only part of what ya'll are talking about. *sigh* that's the downside, no place to meet for coffee and just talk. xoxox

    ReplyDelete
  4. I blog for enjoyment. I like to read dirty jokes and funny stuff.
    And what you said over at Hot Vimto was incorrect, according to BBC researchers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I honestly believe I can tell more about a person by what's on his/her blogroll than I can by what they write. We still constrain ourselves when putting it all out there in the blogosphere (especially if we are married), but we still live vacariously thru many of the blogs we read, able to deny that WE personally are thinking those same thoughts.

    I do know one thing......if the mainstream media doesn't plug the holes the bankrupt newspapers are leaving (keeping tabs on the bad guys), we can kiss democracy as we know it (or THINK we know it) goodbye.

    I'll take a six-pack of RED, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. 150???? really..... bugga'I must have someone elses lot as well.....Oh well not ta worry they probaly couldn't handle it anyway...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I try not to care too much and fly under the radar. I like my blue pill.

    I will miss being one in half a million when I move. I like that people don't recognize me in the street. It bothers me that I always end up looking like a snob because I don't say hello in the street.

    Ok this was off topic I suppose. Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like this medium - reminds me of the pen-pals of my youth

    kind of

    however I can't imagine a world without printed books, painted (or otherwise) art and music in the format that comes with covers that you can fiddle with: I like looking at and holding physical things; and, much as I enjoy this, it doesn't replace my need to touch stuff

    ReplyDelete
  9. (so which pill am I supposed to take?)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Which pill will give the erection lasting four hours or more?

    I like Jung's idea of a collective unconsciousness, the species collective memories and experiences. I think that what you said about knowledge is true; humans do seek out information, because it's in our best interests, survival, to do so.

    The internet is just the latest way to seek and accumulate and disseminate ideas and knowledge. In a way, it has allowed for further and faster exploration and experimentation on ideas. Naturally, we are drawn to it.

    But I think that we're always going to have books and paintings and maybe some buildings, at least the ones that survive natural and man made disasters. It's in our species memories, and we still remember the thrill of the first time we shared our ideas and knowledge with others.

    Stories of old told today still inspire our imaginations the same way it did our ancestors. And cave paintings still fascinate and capture our attention the same way it did our ancient fore bearers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeap,well said that's really happening.Even if I still don't get Matrix or refuse to get it ;)
    Great post,really.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think people ned to stop watching other people ("celebrities") and their lives and golive their own.
    That's why I love the blogosphere...so many different people doing so many things.

    It's just the next step. I recall BBS systems in college, and this is the next bump up. And more accessable to everyone...
    I hope it will make people more tolerant...

    ReplyDelete
  13. MJ
    I'll help you get rid of anyone who isn't snarky or gross!
    Tossers.

    KNUDSEN
    The good old days eh?
    That 80s Movie Quiz on Facebook was insulting. They need to try Viking Movies or most horses tripped in a Western before John Wayne stopped it.

    I'm not ready for Blurry either? Or textmsng..I refuse.

    SAVANNAH
    It might be fun to meet somewhere once a year..for coffee heh heh heh.
    I know that it would be super fun.

    SCURRILOUS VICUNA
    That's just great, now everyone will start to think that everything I write is not 100% completely true and above-board!

    It's off to the drawing board...and I need to write essays every so often..I know that nobody reads them, they are for me.

    I can't say that I am out here to have fun all of the time..prolly only 50%...the rest is just time well wasted while I am wasted.

    GILLETTE
    Red it tiz...hang on! Last one to the Tea Party is a rotten egg.

    DAS MIKHAIL
    Hmm..are you suggesting that some of us are prevented from admitting that we have a funny feeling in our swimsuit areas when we are out here oggling?

    I actually think that the online guys are doing a way better job of keeping the bad guys honest...
    that's why the Papers follow them now.

    WHITE SNAKE
    That's because you have a heart as BIG as the outdoors! The other bloke obviuosly isn't missing them so carry on.

    CYBE PETER
    Anonymity is next to godliness!

    I LIKE TO TOUCH STUFF
    The Blue Pill.

    Books won't entirely disapear..
    there will always, always, always be a hard copy printed to show you how to fix Windows.

    EROSMITH
    Well said old chap..I can go along with there always being books and paintings, but building not-so-much. We'll all be back in caves because only 800 tons of solid rock above our head will protect us from the radioactive fallout.


    CANDIE
    C'mon...the Matrix is simple. We're all a bunch of computer batteries lying around in jello-pods and a program makes us believe that we are oot & aboot living normal lives.

    Throw out your blue pills!

    GEOSOCAT
    It will make more people tolerant but the Dark-side of the Force is strong on the Interwebs. I have seen a few and I'm probably being tracked by Homeland Security & Savings just for clicking over to some of them.

    It's important to educate and reach out to the uninformed great unwashed..only then will they realise that we can only have world peace and universal tolerance if we KILL all of the asshats!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I like the green pills. Things pretty much stay the same but I get a little mellower.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ALLAN
    I hear ya! Nothing wrong with dialing down..wish everyone did.

    ReplyDelete
  16. All fun aside...time to get (ahem) serious here. :)

    Truthfully, I have a belief in this medium to change things. Always have seen the potential power in the internet, blogs and such. Especially in conjunction with giving power back to 'the people' through truth and awareness.

    And..in that vein...I want to alert those in the US about new bills that are being pushed through that would industrialize farming and make organic farming obsolete.

    My apologies, Donn, for shamelessly linking to a post on my blog, but I see no quick way to leave all the info here in a comment.

    http://tinyurl.com/b4lmow

    I'm pissed and am trying my best to spread the word as it seems we only have about two weeks to stop this.

    ReplyDelete
  17. coppens, you get more like me every day. does that bother you? don't let it. I don't own a red bow tie, and besides, you'll enjoy the tits.

    The problem with the internet is that its full of the same people who believe that it's perfectly natural to buy Frozen toast and bottled tapwater. people can be convinced to buy anything...bad ideas, bad products, the notion that regulated=safe. we out here thinking our own thoughts and arriving at our own conclusions minus the sanction of our betters are dangerously into the fringe zone where adventurous little bacteria get killed by the Lysol in the agar. our task is to continue to concoct our own medium, to jump the petri dish, to learn to consume Lysol and to MARCH ON FUCKING ROME.

    and now, would someone be so kind as to pass me a cold drink and a valium?
    *collapses prettily upon recamier, wrist upon forehead, camillias fading visibly in a nearby vase...*

    ReplyDelete
  18. ...ps KNUDSON rocks my world!

    ReplyDelete

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