The Information Superhighway
In the above video, Neil Postman discusses his ideas and understanding of cyberspace. This interview was recorded in 1995, providing an interesting comparison of the concepts and theories of virtual reality then, and the way it actually is presently. Postman was a media theorist and professor at NYU (New York University) and founded a graduate program in Media Ecology which focuses on technology’s influence and control over society and life.
I found it interesting when he mentions having the opportunity to be anyone you want in cyberspace, which he reminds us is very different than talking face to face with another human being.
When he’s asked whether he believes it is a good thing or a bad thing, he compares it to a “Faustian bargain” where this is an opportunity for something important. However, something else important will be lost or taken away. The Faustian bargain that he mentions is relevant to a deal with the devil, or a willingness to sacrifice anything in return for knowledge or power.
Postman also mentions hearing others around him discussing an “information superhighway”. He explains that with the information super highway (what we know as internet and satellite media) “will become possible to shop at home, bank at home, get your texts (books) at home, and get entertainment at home and so on..” He also renders the thought that this could end any meaningful community life, and diminish a certain humanistic responsibility we have for each other like family, friends, and jobs. He even states, “that responsibility is there, you can’t just turn off a person, [although] on the internet, you can.”
Just from these first few comments about the possibilities with cyberspace and a replacement to the need for basically leaving the house, we have in present day reached this point clearly so much so that the question of the use of drones is acceptable as a means of transporting packages and shipments even across the ocean via autonomous transportation.
With Amazon a prime example of buying and selling online, to your home. Banking at home is now ever present, specifically not just for online banking but with the medium of our phones.
Postman continues to discuss the nature of online relationships versus real relationships face to face, “after all talking to someone on the internet is a different proposition from being in the same room with someone… in terms of revealing who you are, and who the other person is.” He is referring to this ideal world online where we can be whoever we want to be and do whatever we want to be, the real question remains to what the affects are from this ability.
Writer Alexander Alter for the Wall Street Journal discusses in his article, Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?, a man named Ric Hoogestraat, who is in a relationship with a virtual character in an online site called Second Life. The article presents that Hoogestraat who is married in real life to his wife Sue, yet on second life, his name is Dutch Hoorenbeek, and he is in a relationship with a female character named Tenaj Jackalope. This female character on Second Life he is in a virtual relationship with is controlled by a lady named Janet Spielman in real life (whom Hoogestraat has never met).
In the article, his wife, Sue, attempts at times to re-establish his awareness of his real life, including her, yet he finds more pleasure in Second Life.
Creativity is an important part of being certain of self, and our place in the world. Art, is a way of communication, sending out a message through a created representation of real life, but it is merely an imitation of real life, not real life.
Postman states his worry of the use with personal computers and the affects they may have on learning. He explains schools for instance are an important place for forming social skills, and providing the insight to students to see they are a part of a group. The computer iterates that individualized learning and activity is better.
Other examples of this concept that is a positive approach as Second Life is promoted to be, like SimCity, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and Call of Duty. All of which are virtual worlds, which provide users the ability to do whatever they want within the realms of the game.
The ideal understanding behind the internet or the “Information Superhighway” is that it creates a global connection for everyone. Postman touches on this when he mentions Marshal McLuhan, a professor of English and a philosopher of communication theory. McLuhan mentions a phrase and theory of a “global village”, where the world in a sense would become more homogeneous. But, Postman believes that with this connectedness, and ease of available information at anytime, we become more enveloped in ourselves, our heritage, history, and roots. To the point that the inverse almost results.
In a sense that is what cyberspace can result in if not moderated, like anything else always in moderation is key. Too much of anything, can be a bad thing.
