The epoch we’re living in is very important and special. And I don’t want to imply that 21st century is somehow more important than the previous, regarding, for example, the population growth or the boom of new inventions. I just want to say that 21st century is very special for us, because it is our epoch, the time period in which we are (most likely) going to spend the rest of our life. And therefore we want and need to think it is special. People are often even ready to believe that the life is going to change completely, thanks to the achievements of science or just simply because of the unstoppable progress of civilizations.
And actually, that seems to be true. At the first glance (and maybe few others) at least, it truly appears that our world and our contemporary way of living has few in common with the lives of our ancestors. Think of the differences for a moment… Technologies enabling us to communicate overseas within seconds, public transportation bringing the whole world to us, massive colossus of information available just few clicks away, more free time than we ever had and even more way how to spend it – that sounds like whole new planet, if you compare it to the world where most of the people hardly knew what is the name of their landlord, they heard of some king of their but never really needed to know anything about him, because all they had to do is to survive, work and survive, and probably have some fun, which, compared to our leisure time, seems tediously dull.
Without too broad generalizing we might say that we consider the 21st century to be the peak of civilization. That, of course, depends on the gauges we are using, and if we want count in the respectable ancient civilizations, it’s not that easy to judge this, but I think on some level it is assumable. If nothing else, the various possibilities of communications all around the planet is irrefutable – and it really has direct impact on our daily lives. The last two centuries progressively prepared the way for nowadays media culture: ever since the penny-press broke the barrier of easily approachable daily portion of text for broad-spectrum audience and later the radio learned people to passively receive stream of information, ever since the TV nailed the whole families to their couches regularly, media seem to change the society completely.
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan saw this as the crucial cause of change (not only) in out times. His famous quote “The medium is the message“ emphasizes the fact that what is transported by the medium (book, telephone, web etc.) is not that important for learning about certain civilization as the medium itself. Supporting this claim by historical evidence and research, he continued by studying recent media and even forecast the future by saying that "the new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village." Well, given that this was written in 1962, he definitely had some insight. Especially we who are living in advanced countries have no doubt that World Wide Web, mobile phones or e-mails considerably affect our daily lives.
The opportunities are many times greater as regards getting specific knowledge or piece of information. Without special training, any student can find out what is the capital of Assyria (among other far more interesting things) just using his internet browser and full-text search engine, without even leaving his home or opening a book. Academic research hasn’t even discovered all the new possibilities new technologies opened to it. And we are not talking about commercial use of these. Advertisement has entered into a solid agreement with all kinds of media, making them cheaper, although intoxicating them with noise. Free market profits from this information-freedom and inexhaustible variety of choices.
And yet… Does more choices mean better choice? Do these technology achievements really change that much in our lives? Or maybe the question is: should they?
Sometimes I wonder how easy it would be in more simple way. Work and rest, to put it bluntly. Just like in the old times, right? We wouldn’t know, what happened in China, or what is the stock market value of “PIXR”, there would be not many ways to get in touch with our relatives living their lives in different town, but it would be so much easier to stay tuned, to stay in focus, to keep our minds clear. That is especially hard now, being literally attacked by messages of all kinds.
All the possibilities can cloud up what is important in our lives and lives of people who are close to us. Cold technology can replace a lot of our interaction with others, but is that to be considered the good thing? We are, after all, physical beings, and using our feet and hands is not an inappropriate action. Saving time by working faster and more efficient for spending more time by trying to fill our desires here and there? Sometimes it feels like detaching ourselves from the life, becoming truly virtual, meaning not computer-based, but merely not that real. I am sure that the essence of human life did not change. We are still people. We just don’t often realize what that means any more. That’s what makes me sad – the alleged welfare and variety of choices finally lead to skepticism and relativism.
That many options everywhere – it makes it harder to see where we are, what we are, what do we need and how do we want to spend our life. Although that hasn’t changed much within last centuries, has it? The tools and appearances are hugely different, but it is still only cover which makes it harder to see what’s underneath. It is still people who are going to live in this new century. In some ways we have it easier, in other ways harder. It’s called life.
"There are no passengers on spaceship Earth. We are all crew."
Marshal McLuhan
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