The internet reflects our technological evolution back at us not only by incorporating past forms but also by illuminating the way each invention has affected our behavior and conceptualization of the world.
The Paradox of Human Expression
The Paradox of Human Expression Through Technology
The internet: its form and content are created and influenced by humans. Thus, the internet and humanity have a reciprocal, symbiotic relationship. It is difficult to examine the effects of a technology within its own framework because the trajectory of its evolution necessarily relies on and even enhances past technologies, and because all facets of life are irrevocably intertwined. The reflexive connection between humanity and technology means that we shape and are simultaneously shaped by our technological developments. Our history can never be told without the inclusion of technology, and our future is nonexistent without it. In his text, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, Walter J. Ong postulates that “writing and print and the computer are all ways of technologizing the word. Once the word is technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available. Moreover, the new technology is not merely used to convey the critique: in fact, it brought the critique into existence.”1 Considering the internet as the “highest form” of commonly used technology to date, this paper intends to investigate the complex progression of human thought and experience in tandem with that of technological innovations made possible by the internet, as well as the ways in which communication has become simultaneously more interiorized as well as exteriorized given the shift towards virtual experience away from physical experience.
Though the modern connotation of technology conjures ideas of super computers and virtual realities, the roots of technology remain firmly in the practical application of discovery, with the aim of expediting or otherwise improving aspects of our existence. Writing is a prime example of an early technology that has been indispensable in creating the world we experience today. As technology evolves, certain aspects that are found to be useful are enhanced, while those deemed obsolete are done away with. Take, for example, the shift from performance-based orality to analysis-oriented writing: “chirographic cultures regard speech as more specifically informational than do oral cultures, where speech is more performance-oriented, more a way of doing something to someone.”2 With each step from orality to writing, writing to print, and print to digital literacy, the emphasis on information grows ever larger while the performative aspect slips away as our writing becomes withdrawn from physical human interaction. “The evolution of consciousness through human history is marked by growth in articulate attention to the interior of the individual person as distanced—though not necessarily separated— from the communal structures in which each person is necessarily enveloped.”3 These degrees of separation widened by each technological innovation paradoxically serve to connect us as well as divide us.
The invention of the internet created the opportunity for a multitude of connections as well as the widespread dissemination of information. Many young people use the internet as a coping mechanism when starved for connection in real life, just as Ong described: “Writing introduces division and alienation, but a higher unity as well. It intensifies the sense of self and fosters more conscious interaction between persons.”4 Through establishing virtual relationships, we may feel a deeper sense of understanding and humanity than ever displayed to us in the physical world. Simultaneously this overload of stimulus can divide us, disconnect us from reality and disassociate us from ourselves. It often takes no more than a notification or two to bring us out of the present moment and into a virtual, internal space. Online expression and curation allows us to “intensify the sense of self,” transform ourselves in a way that liberates but also distorts our sense of personhood. Rather than enjoy the ephemeral nature of a performance, the ability to digitize the experience manifests a compulsion to relentlessly record. Ironically, being taken out of the moment through digital documentation creates an opening to savor the moment infinitely; sacrificing momentary joys for permanence for the ability to “relive” a moment that was never fully experienced in the first place.
This critique that technology removes us from the natural world was commonly leveled against writing at the dawn of its era, associating this separation from the natural world with death, an obviously negative connotation brought forth out of fear of change. As Ong points out, “writing is passive, out of it, in an unreal, unnatural world. So are computers.”5 It is a pattern that continues with every invention, brought into existence by the interconnectedness of technologies. Ong expands on this point, noting that the “paradox lies in the fact that the deadness of the text, its removal from the living human lifeworld, its rigid visual fixity, assures its endurance and its potential for being resurrected into limitless living contexts by a potentially infinite number of living readers.” By defying the mortal constraints of life and existing forever, it is effectively dead, a moot point; and yet it is revived anytime someone reads it, senses it, experiences it.
Examining the intertwined evolution of humanity and technology, there is an endless recurrence of similar if not identical critiques accusing technological innovations at every juncture. This distinct cycle of hesitance to new technology due to the way it alters human interaction and experience only to eventually succumb to the efficiency of said new technology, which then becomes the norm, is everlasting and exemplifies the reflexive relationship between humans and technological advancements. Despite our propensity to consider technology unnatural or “outside” of the natural world, our cyclical relationship with it as well as its creation from innate ingredients of our existence affirms its naturality. We forget when newer technologies emerge that we are always skeptical of losing our humanity, yet it is our discourse around and through technology that makes it an integral part of the human experience: “Technologies are artificial, but—paradox again—artificiality is natural to human beings.”6
Delving into the complexities and unforeseen complications of inextricably integrating technology into human life, popular Netflix Original Black Mirror is well known for extrapolating modern technologies into their most intense and rigid form as a warning sign to humanity: “if we don’t pay attention and think critically, this sci-fi dystopia could very well be our lives in a few decades.” Technology is made out to be the antagonist of the series, disconnecting us from our personhood and distorting our sense of morality. However, one episode is a stark contrast to the entire catalog of Black Mirror episodes. “San Junipero” imagines a world in which technology has evolved to support, not dominate, human existence.7 The story follows a budding romance between Kelly, an old woman who outlived her child, husband, and her many cancer prognoses, and Yorkie, a quadriplegic who has been in a vegetative state for over four decades after a tragic accident following coming out to her parents spurred by her emotional response to being disowned. However, it is impossible to tell the reality of both women’s lives from the opening scenes of the episode because they are already in the simulated universe of San Junipero, which is both the title of the episode and the name of the simulated reality.
There, they are young and spritely twenty-somethings, able to move without pain and act without fear or judgment. Not only does the simulated reality open up possibilities for them physically, it gives them a chance to live a life outside of the social restrictions and categorizations of the real world. Both women are of a generation where being gay meant discrimination, isolation, and shame; they were never able to experiment freely in their real lives. Kelly met her husband very young, spending almost fifty years of her life with him; she was deeply committed to their relationship—arguably another result of the social norms consistent with the time she lived in, where women had to be committed to a man in order to “earn” respect and opportunities. Despite her attraction to women, she remained a loyal wife. She doesn’t necessarily regret this decision, but the simulated universe of San Junipero allows her to experiment with her sexuality as if she were young again – a chance only available to her through the use of technology. Kelly is also a woman of color, so for her to come out as bisexual during the time she lived in would invite even more discrimination and hardship. Similarly, due to Yorkie’s accident at such a young age, she was deprived of many of the joys of life such as having relationships, sex, personal endeavors, children, and so on. San Junipero allows her to exceed both the physical limits of real life that have kept her bedridden and the social and political limits that led to her estrangement with her parents and her repressed, risk-averse personality.
Both women use San Junipero as an escape from the complexity as well as the confines of the real world, but their time there ends up being anything but simple or artificial. Their ability to create new identities, new relationships, and even new realities convolutes their experience but also makes it arguably more real and certainly more limitless than their lives on earth. It perfectly exemplifies Ong’s point that “technology, properly interiorized, does not degrade human life but on the contrary enhances it,”8 connecting us and providing opportunities through our own means; though it is man-made that does not have to mean that it is unnatural. The only difference between natural and man-made is that the latter requires effort to assemble—the building blocks innately exist. It also is a prime example of technology shaping our psychology; because they are no longer bound by the limits of social norms, laws, resources or even mortality, they are liberated to explore as many different aspects of existence as they desire and behave in ways that would be deemed unacceptable in the physical world: “The new medium here reinforces the old, but of course transforms it.”9
Just as writing defies the mortal constraints of life by existing endlessly, so too do Yorkie and Kelly. Although their physical bodies are still inhabiting the mortal world, many of San Junipero’s residents are permanent—that is to say, they have opted for this simulated reality instead of the unknown void of death. The episode pointedly includes social discourse surrounding this technology, with most of the outrage deeming it as unnatural, arguably making this fictional story even more realistic. Indeed, there are still people like Kelly’s husband who opted to die naturally instead of artificially extending their time; but, for the first time ever, they are faced with a choice of afterlife. Technology in this episode not only changes human psychology and behavior but also the meaning of human existence.
Though certain aspects of prior technologies must necessarily be shed or adapted for an evolution to take place, there is value in each stage of progress. Not only do past technologies lay the foundation for our new innovations, they also provide us options for expression. Sometimes there is value in reciting something orally rather than writing it, or writing something by hand rather than typing it. Contrary to popular belief, electronic devices are not replacing printed books but are actually producing more of them. Podcasts, videos and speech to text programs make ideas more accessible to the general public, but are less intimate than reading a physical book. There is always a tradeoff, but with each innovation we diversify our options. Moreover, the new technologies are not only built on past inventions but also find new ways to reinvent them, giving them a new light to be appreciated in or a new niche to explore. Current technologies can never be entirely separate from the old, just as our existence can never be entirely separate from technology or really any other facet of life.
It is human nature to want to improve the state of our surroundings, especially through our discoveries and creations. Ong notes that we can appreciate our progress while also valuing each step of the journey: “Orality is not an ideal, and never was. To approach it positively is not to advocate it as a permanent state for any culture. Literacy opens possibilities to the word and to human existence unimaginable without writing.”10 Our drive for progress through technological innovation is something to be revered, but it also detrimentally affects the way we view the world; it molds our ideas into quantifiable metrics despite our awareness that the human experience is quite indefinable. The socially accepted linear, and consequently hierarchical, worldview often leads to disparaging connotations surrounding past customs and tools when really they are the stepping stones for our current existence. Asserting that “orality is not despicable,” Ong elaborates: “It can produce creations beyond the reach of literates…Nor is orality ever completely eradicable: reading a text oralizes it. Both orality and the growth of literacy out of orality are necessary for the evolution of consciousness.”11
It is hard to recognize how influenced we are by our own creations. Psychological and sociological shifts do not happen overnight. Ong explains, “the interaction between the orality that all human beings are born into and the technology of writing, which no one is born into, touches the depths of the psyche.”12 Over time we gain perspective and are able to understand the effects, often aided by newer technologies. The internet reflects our technological evolution back at us not only by incorporating past forms but also by illuminating the way each invention has affected our behavior and conceptualization of the world. As we shift towards virtual realities by means of the internet, we are more open to connection than ever before, similarly to Ong’s description of orality-literacy dynamics: “Orality-literacy dynamics enter integrally into the modern evolution of consciousness toward both greater interiorization and greater openness.”13 The possibilities are infinite. A moment you captured or a thought you had has the potential to be seen by tens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Despite the internet’s relatively young age it has completely revolutionized expression, not only the way we externally express ourselves but also internally as well.
It is easy to get lost in an echo chamber of your own beliefs on the internet; an overwhelming amount of information and expression can make anyone believe that they’re superior or that they understand the world for what it “really” is. Everyone has an opinion to share online because the internet has made our desire to be noticed insatiable. People enjoy playing devil’s advocate on the internet because they are affirmed by others while simultaneously feigning anonymity to avoid consequences in the physical world. Online trolls can have their cake and eat it too, and this undoubtedly shapes the way in which we all view the world. A deluge of details and statistics harvested from happenings all around the globe, regardless of accuracy, can disorient us and make us feel more divided than ever, even though this internet era is the first time we’ve ever been able to acquire information as events unfold in real time. As demonstrated through my reading of Ong, each stage of technological advancement is important in its own right, but that does not mean we should go backwards or stop progressing. We may only be able to understand the reciprocal effects of our relationship with the internet after it has been phased out and replaced by a “higher technology,” but it is not a stretch to say that each technological innovation has heightened our awareness of this symbiotic dynamic. We must think critically about the ways in which our conceptions and behaviors both as an individual and as a society are affected by technological developments to reclaim the power to influence outcomes by making more informed decisions and communicating with clarity and intention.
