Last post I talked about the phenomenon known as “trance”. The idea is to use repetitive stimuli to create an altered state of mind. Some might use this for meditation or religious purposes. Others might use this to experience hallucinations or simply escape. I traced a lineage that connected the music we hear on the radio today with other forms of trance-inducing music. Is today’s pop/dance/club music really intended to create a state of trance? Not entirely. It might have different functions for different people; it all depends on what the listener wants to get out of the music. But I do believe that this type of music strongly lends itself to these types of experiences.
I can remember a personal experience I had in a bar named Luna in Royal Oak, Michigan. I was dancing uninhibitedly in a packed crowd of people. I had a few drinks, so my mind was kind of loopy. The laser lights flashing all around me were disorienting. The music was loud and insistent. Time started to melt into evaporating flashes of memory. During one moment of clarity, I remember feeling lost. Not an isolated kind of lost, but a sort of identity-less sort of lost; I became another face in a homogenous crowd. The culminating assault on my senses left me in a state of trance. It was a wonderful feeling for me, but some may not agree.
Here is the point I am moving towards. Our modern culture offers us many distractions: clubs, video games, TV, smart phones, the internet, etc. I have heard some people level criticism at the kids in my generation and younger (the “digital generation”) that we are an apathetic generation: the technology and media we use is stifling our call to social and political action. Does this comment have any merit?
First, we are assuming that everyone uses this technology and media for the same purpose. It is true that some might use video games as an escape. What if others, however, use these things to connect and bond more to their friends and family? What if they use it as an instrument to shape their world instead of tune out from it? The Arab Spring is a great example. That movement was catalyzed by the use of social media networking, the very thing that some are saying is making us all lazy and complacent.
This brings to light a common misconception about media and technology: some think it is inherently bad. When the Columbine Shootings happened in 1999, many people tried to pin the blame on Marilyn Manson’s music. Many people are quick to criticize video games like Grand Theft Auto for promoting violence. Some think that the internet is making us disconnected and more anti-social. The faults here lie in the user, not the medium. Think of it this way: if there were no humans around on the planet, would technology and media have a function? I would argue no. Technology and media is only as good as it serves human beings. From this perspective, technology and media do not control what we do. On the contrary, we control it. We use it as a conduit for living out the life we have chosen for ourselves. Technology and media have no intrinsic morality; only humans do. I realize there are many holes or “what ifs” in this argument, but for now I’ll move to my next point.
So if we are an apathetic generation, blame us and not technology or media. But the question still remains: do we really tune ourselves out too much? I’m still on the fence. My last post talked about how this idea of “tuning out” has been going on for centuries in a variety of cultures. Is our culture just manifesting it in new and different ways? Do we tune ourselves out just as much as a person in primeval Africa would centuries ago? Perhaps, and in that case we will have nothing to worry about. But I do think there a tipping point that we should never cross. Even worse, there is a sickening feeling inside of me that fears we have already crossed over the line and have not realized it yet. I’ll leave you with this disturbing comic that compares George Orwell’s version of the future with Aldous Huxley’s version of the future:
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