Two weeks ago I blogged about a short video clip that made me think about the scope and the reach of our mass media. The effects current media transformations may have on the practices of our spirituality and our previously boundaried definitions of what connotes "church" is the continuing focus of this blog.
Today, I'm posting another clip: Web 2.0 – The Machine Us/ing Us.
Originally made by Professor Mike Wesch from the Digital Ethnography department of Kansas State University, the clip has proven quite viral. It is excellent evidence that the speed of diffusion is increasing. And that there's quite a bit of wisdom in Christians pursuing new media technologies. Not because there is anything particularly good or evil about them. Technologies are nothing but tools. They can be used for great gain or overlooked in terms of value and significance.
Prof. Wesch blogged "On January 31st I released the 2nd draft of The Machine is Us/ing Us hoping to receive feedback from my colleagues. I sent it to 10 people. Four days later it was the most blogged about video in the blogosphere. It is hard to believe that a little video I created in my basement in St. George Kansas could be seen by over 1.7 million people, be translated into (at least) 5 languages, and be shown to large audiences at major conferences on 6 continents within just one month of its creation.
Of course, all that's doubled now. Professor Wesch and his students are currently studying the Ethnology of YouTube.
I wouldn't have found this one with out Steve Knight's (SIM) new blog called Kingdom Journalism (HT – Andrew Jones for the link).
Great video.. very insightful.
Kent, just got your recent email. Will be blogging about Worship House Media soon.
more thinking then
Wow, that was incredible. Not only was it excellently edited together, it was virtually (!) exhilarating! Bloggable.
Again, we return to McLuhan’s insight that the medium is the message. The media we use to communicate invariably says more than we realize, and changes us more than we expect. We do need to adapt our thinking.
A caveat, though … not all new media effects are positive. While the tools themselves are not bad of themselves, sometimes we have to be on guard against the tendencies they tend to promote.
For example, with the advent and maturity of online communication, it’s far too easy to disassociate one’s meatspace identity with their virtual identity. The perception of opacity and anonymity online brings with it a host of temptations, impulses, and opportunities that face-to-face transparency often inhibits. We all know the angry emails, screeds, and bitter blogs with words that would never have been uttered in person.
As I watch my children learning to use the computer, I reflect on this. Yes, the machine connects people. But sometimes we need protection from those people, too.
I’m not a luddite, far from it. But the eyes-wide-open enthusiasm for the power and promise of these technologies must be balanced with thoughtfulness and wisdom, often far too lacking in the most zealous of tech fans.
Regards,
Rich
BlogRodent
Cynthia – I feel like I’m back in my comm theory classes in college…McLuhan’s ‘the medium is the message…” and I’m right back there! I’d forgotten you were a comm girl too! I got my bachelor’s in communications at Santa Clara, with an emphasis in journalism. The theory classes were always crazy-type discussions, ot technology, where is it taking us, etc., etc., and your blog brings me right back there.
I read about the ‘Machine is Us/ing us” in Wired a week or so ago, and had forgotten to check it out, so I was stoked to find a link to it here. =) It’s funny to think how different it’s going to be for my girlies, compared to how it was for me (although, having used the web since I was 14, maybe not so different). But it’s already changed so much, in that time, it’s wild to think what it will become in only the next 10 years! Both good and bad, it’s going to be (is) fascinating to watch it unfold.
I know; it’s amazing how both insightful and forward thinking McLuhan was as well as how important his theories and paradigms (hot vs. cool media, as one example) have remained.
Pioneer futurist Howard Rheingold is someone you might want to check out currently, if you still have any interest in whose work might be remembered as the cutting edge in media in years to come. (He’s certainly covered what the next 10 years will be like; in fact, he’s already “doing it”.) He’s currently serving on the faculty at Stanford, so it’s near you enough that you could sit in on a lecture, teaching a class in future media. You can access him from my sidebar as well as the Cooperation Commons. He’s also a visiting fellow at Annenberg School of Digital Media at USC.
I can’t even keep up with the man’s google group emails, much less all he’s developing, producing, researching, forecasting, writing, thinking – did I also mention he paints shoes? Well, he paints a lot of things (which I don’t recommend) but some of the shoes are cool. Anyway, I’d think you’d enjoy reading his work in terms of media in general and where it’s headed in the future. You can do this in your free time, when you’re not parenting, running your photo business or commenting on friends blogs?