Digital Witness: Engaged v. Plugged In - Section 6

Digital Witness: Engaged v. Plugged In 

The internet is arguably mankind's greatest invention. It has enhanced the accessibility of information, making learning easier inside and outside of classrooms. It has also enhanced mass communication, tearing down boarders and giving us the ability to communicate with people that are cities, states, or even countries away, with just the click of a button. This makes it so much easier to fuel our professional and personal relationships. Easier, but perhaps less genuine. We use technology to gain control of the dialogues we participate in and to help construct the opinions that others have of us. This is the case for all technological mediums, but specifically in texting and in social media. When we involve ourselves in a face-to-face conversation, we cannot account for what the other person is going to say and it is not appropriate to go hours, or even minutes, without responding to someone. This means that we are forced to form our response, and send it through a very quick filtration before the words leave our mouths. In turn, the response we produce is usually a raw and honest one. Contrary to this, is the digital dialogues we have with our peers. We receive a text message and we have a choice – respond now or consider what your response will be. Type several out, picking only the one that you feel the most confident in. This may not be the case for simple text messages – like the ones we use to tell people we are "OTW", or to send a thinking of you text, or a good luck text. But these are not the texts that are popularized in today's culture. Our conversations are all but monopolized by digital witnesses – the community that lives inside of our phones. 

In this TED Talk Psychologist Adam Alter evaluates how much of our sacred personal time is consumed by our smartphones or tablets and how damaging this can be to our ambition, relationships, and even our identity and how we can be mindful of this by re-implementing "stopping ques." 

In the video below, Art Rock musician St. Vincent sings her song Digital Witness with the lyrics: 

"Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping? If I can't show it, if you can't see me What's the point of doing anything?" 

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This is an age old philosophical question that comes to mind when I am considering the relationships we have with our peers and acquaintances through social media. It seems to be that very little is important to people unless they have their phones to document it. We become strangers to solitude because "alone" now means alone with our phones – and alone with our phones means our thoughts are constantly being halted and altered by the opinions or judgment of other people. In my second installation, I will further examine the cons of the ever-rising cyberculture and discuss some tactics we as a community can potentially adopt in an effort to keep humanity in every household.