Putting technology in its proper place with Marshall McLuhan (and the Stoics).

Part One — The Post-Digital Conversation

What happens when camping becomes a form of entertainment? No longer a necessary part of the human lifestyle — does it mean we are now a ‘Post-Survival’ culture?

That’s the discussion being had about the digital world.

You don’t need to know much about distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, extended reality, or quantum computing (otherwise known as DARQ technology) to realize that our patterns of living are deeply entrenched in the digital world. Our everyday rhythms have become so synonymous with digital technology that we just assume its presence.

The digital world is no longer special.

The digital world is the standard.

It’s the assumed foundation of normal living that we might only be aware of when we lose power for a few hours.

I am of an age that I remember when cell phones were not a reality. I also remember when having a Blackberry was all the rage while my 16-year-old self was stuck with the common flip phone (which was the common technological standard circa 2006). To have a smartphone during those years was to be way ahead of the game — a status symbol of advancement.

Now, to have anything but a smartphone is seen as backward, primitive, and, dare we say, barbaric.

Which is a microcosm of how technology has changed — we are no longer looking to connect the world digitally, that destination has arrived. Rather, we are discovering the unmined depths of digital possibilities. With 5G promising to automate everything, our paradise of achieving a sort of immortality seems within our grasp (which is what many tech folks presume as ‘Post-Digital’ — that we will move past our current connectivity to something else entirely. There is another nuance to the phrase in the common folk sense — that we will rebel against the norms that have emerged in the digital age and move, possibly backward, to something simpler).

But as we have entered a reality where being online, being connected digitally, is an occurrence even during sleep, will there be any backlash?

Will we go ‘Post-Digital’ and rebel against the norms of our technological advancements?

Part Two — Flip Phones & Post-Digital Games

Fortunately, the answers to such questions have been provided. Through the ages of history, we can find similar patterns. We can even find voices who were having this conversation long before we experienced its arrival.

Sensing a bit of concern, I heeded these voices as a sort of experiment back in 2016. As smartphones were ubiquitous with being alive, I felt the same pressure that parents are rallying over with their questions on ‘screentime’ or the common insult of someone being ‘chained to their phone.’

I, too, felt caught in a machine that I didn’t fully understand and I wanted to try and escape the game as best I could.

Because even the phrases ‘screentime’ or ‘chained to my phone’ are so strange. Can you imagine how folks just 50 years ago would have responded to these contemporary sayings? We know culture has shifted when having a smartphone was a superior status symbol, while now ‘being chained to your phone’ has taken on the same level of status as a chain smoker.

Alas, in 2016, I turned off my smartphone, put it in a drawer and opened the box of my brand new LG 236C.

It felt good.

As if I was rebelling against the dominant patterns of civilization and tapping into a previous form of living — which was still quite technologically advanced in the purview of history and was a previous form that was only a few years past.

I maintained this pattern for 2 years. Eventually, it became normal. I no longer desired the technological breakthroughs occurring in the smartphone world and I found a sense of contentment.

Having my phone constantly in my pocket or in my hand dissipated (there wasn’t much of a reason to keep it around), I wasn’t constantly checking social media for the ever-faithful dopamine hit, and my presence in real-time with real people was markedly more full.

There is something human about having to stop for directions because you don’t have GPS on a screen in front of you.

Twas’ a formative period for me.

But was it ‘Post-Digital’?

Obviously, the digital nature of even the primitive flip phone reveals the basic answer to that question, but does my experiment reveal a possibility of transcending our digital ecosystem?

Or is something else happening here?

On to the one and only Marshall McLuhan.

Part Three — The Nature of Technology Via Marshall McLuhan

This philosopher just might have created the concept of being ahead of your time. Because Marshall McLuhan, whose work culminated in the 1960’s up until his death in 1981, was speaking to a world yet to come. He saw the digital world unfolding in its infancy and made some calculated projections that have become prophetically true. Consequently, his work is more read now than it was when during his life.

From, “The Medium is the Message,” to his work on, “The Global Village,” or how he formed our perception of media as an ecology and the cognitive differences in using words versus images in communication — most people have been impacted by his work, even from a distance.

But to the point of being ‘Post-Digital’ McLuhan offered what have become ‘Laws of Media’ in communication circles. Here’s what McLuhan had to say about the very nature of technology.

1) Technology always extends something.

Any technological advancement (media) can be traced back to a basic human experience that we seek to extend.

The invention of glasses was an extension to the eye.

The invention of the wheel was an extension of the foot.

The invention of the security camera was an extension of our presence and sought to improve protection and sight.

We create new media (read, technology) to further our human functioning. The digital world is a result of this adventure.

It may be helpful here to note that technology is not just electricity and computers, but, in McLuhan’s words, any media that extends human function. Yes, clothes are a form of technology. Be careful of saying that someone is anti-technology, then. The Amish, for example, aren’t against technology, they are against continuing to extend media past what they deemed is acceptable.

2) Technology always obsolesces something.

When a new media is introduced, it changes the function of other mediums and previous technology.

What’s important here is that a new media doesn’t destroy a previous one — noted that some people still use the previous technology (typewriters, flip phones, etc) —but also that those media simply take on a lesser or different role.

For example, the horse carriage is no longer a dominant form of transportation (though some still use it). Mainly, it is used for a romantic ride through a quaint village on a snowy evening during Christmas festivities.

The reason McLuhan uses the word “obsolesce” is because most previous forms of technology do become obsolete — they become artifacts of the past. But being forgotten or being hung in a museum doesn’t destroy the extension of media that they provided.

That is because…

3) Technology always retrieves something.

Any new extension is based on some previous extension.

Smoke signals extended the mouth which was extended by writing which was extended by the telegraph which was extended by the internet. Some of those forms became obsolete and changed their function, but the contemporary technology is still based on their existence in the chain of progress.

The internet is, therefore, retrieving the telegraph.

The sous vide device retrieves the oven and the cooking hearth and the fire and on and on it goes.

Just like a new form of music is still rooted in the previous forms that led to its inspiration, technology evolves where the new is an extension of the old.

4) Technology always reverses.

And the Luddites said…, “Amen.”

But wait, this doesn’t mean the technology will end — only that the introduction of a new media also introduces new problems.

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Take a medieval city wall — a great way to protect your kingdom! The barbarians are kept out and the population is secure.

But the city walls also keep people in — so what happens when the city catches fire? What was meant for safety has reversed and is now a danger.

Essentially, no technology is perfect and heeds a certain honesty of what issues will come with it.

Back to the security camera — it extends the eye, it changes the function of the security guard or eyewitness testimony, and it also retrieves the medieval city wall. But the introduction of such an extension also invites the possibility of vulnerability and an invasion of privacy.

Everybody loves having a car — transportation is much faster.

Until you have too many cars on the same road and, as anyone who lives in Los Angeles knows, driving might actually be slower.

When it came to those city walls, if they were aware of technology’s unavoidable reversal, they would not just have asked, “Who will this keep out?” They would have also asked, “Who will this keep in?”

Social media is great — you get to be your own celebrity, the star of your own show, connecting with more people than you could have ever imagined. You can post a new profile pic and get 50 people to give you attention. Where else can you get that? Where else can we keep in touch with so many people all over the place? Where else can we pass on information so instantaneously?

But don’t forget, the media will have reversals and we might want to pay attention to those, too.

New advancements in technology are not singularly positive — something is always lost in the process.

We should be prepared to ask what we are losing.

You don’t have to use social media for very long to recognize that it has introduced all sorts of new problems. Questioning the underlying costs and potential damage, even in our hysteric romanticism about how cool a given technological advancement is, may be the best way to navigate the ‘Post-Digital’ road ahead of us.

Part Four — So Will We Go Post-Digital?

No.

We won’t.

Did we go ‘Post-Survival’? No. We still camp in tents in the wilderness, but the primitive experience has been lost to most of us. The experience, the media, the technology still lingers as a part of our human fabric.

Whatever technology is produced, it becomes normal even as it changes function. We still use wheels and no one seems to be rebelling against that.

Instead of seeking to go ‘Post-Digital’,, we just need to figure out the healthiest way to fit the evolving technologies into our lives.

In conclusion, some suggestions that I believe Mr. McLuhan would support:

1) Don’t assume technology is always better.

You know many smartphone apps are in the dustbin of history? Yeah, some new ideas suck. But even the good ones have their own costs.

Having a computer allows me to write way more than if I was stuck with a pen and paper. But I also lose something. I gain quantity and speed, but I lose attention and memory. I lose a certain quality.

Does this require that I rebel from writing on a computer? No. But it does require that I pay attention to all the factors and, occasionally, get out a pen and paper to keep me honest.

2) Be honest about the costs.

Can you point out the compromises that emerge even with what we might think is perfect technology? From Amazon’s nightmarish working conditions that make 2-day shipping possible to the effects on diet and rural food deserts that accompany global food distribution — if you look close enough, you can find negative side effects permeating, often in disguise, around any technology.

This does not mean the technology is bad.

It only means that it is a technology — and that is part of the deal.

Unavoidably, you will interact with countless forms of technology every moment of every day. Acknowledge the consequential effects, both positive and negative. You will navigate the world more healthily as a result.

One component of technology that could also use some honesty is that it becomes more fragile the further it extends.

Have a winter storm knock out your power for 48 hours to realize just how susceptible our modern way of life is to breaking down.

I’m not saying that you should go full-on zombie apocalypse prepper on us, but the fragility of our society should strike us. We are utterly dependent on a lot of things going our way every single day — which is a reality that also deserves our honesty as technological advancement continues.

Alas, we need to ask questions at every turn.

The awareness we develop might just be the answer the ‘Post-Digital’ age is looking for.

All of which leads us to the Stoics.

3) Challenge dependency on any media.

Walk instead of driving.

Write on paper instead of the computer.

Get a flip phone for a couple of years.

Of all the wise treasures Stoicism offers, their adamancy that they should be dependent on nothing speaks the loudest to our current culture — and their proposition of constant fasting in a variety of forms might be our best hope to the concerns of the digital age.

Read More Here:
Fasting as Life Art
Eight observations on fasting to help you live better

We won’t discontinue our digital normalcy — the technological progress is here to stay.

But we can turn from our current technological dependence.

And that’s where the freedom is — to enjoy the extensions that have made life easier while staying human in the process.

If we get honest about technology, we will avoid becoming lost in its inevitable problems.

Our invitation within our digital world, therefore, is to put technology in its proper place, ask questions about it whenever necessary, and challenge ourselves to be free from the potential walls that could trap us in the inevitable fires to come.