Science + Tech

Our Nomadic Existence: How Electronic Culture Shapes Community

by Shane Hipps

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

In ministry, it seems that we’re often in pursuit of answers to the most pressing questions. But McLuhan seemed far more interested in cultivating a capacity to question well, rather than answer rightly. In fact, if we know the right questions to ask of our ministry methods and media, we will be better equipped to anticipate their unintended consequences. McLuhan developed what he called The Laws of Media⁴ to help people do this. The laws are actually not statements, but questions that describe the four inevitable effects of all media. These are four questions we can ask of nearly any medium or method if we are going to deepen our understanding and gain clarity for the journey ahead.

1. What does the medium EXTEND?
Every new medium enhances, amplifies, or extends some human capacity. This might be a body part (the camera is an extension of the eye), a previous medium (the telephone is an extension of the telegraph) or even an emotion (smoke detectors extend our sense of smell, but also our feeling of security). This is the most obvious question to answer as it is almost always the reason we decide to employ a medium.

2. What does the medium MAKE OBSOLETE?
Every new medium makes an older technology obsolete. In this case, the term “obsolete” does not necessarily mean that the technology disappears, rather that the function of that previous medium changes. For example, the automobile made the horse and buggy obsolete. This means that the horse and buggy went from being used for transportation to being used for quaint entertainment and romance. We may also see the part of ourselves that is extended become obsolete. The wheel makes our feet obsolete; they are used less for transporting ourselves and more for operating levers that cause us to be transported.

3. What does the medium RETRIEVE?
Every new medium retrieves some ancient experience or media from the past. In other words, there is no such thing as a completely new technology. When we discover which medium is retrieved we can study its effects in hindsight in an effort to anticipate the future of the new medium. For example, the medium of e-mail retrieves the telegraph. If we want to understand the future effects of e-mail, we would be wise to study the cultural effects of the telegraph in the 1800s. Answering this question helps us investigate the last question.

4. What does the medium REVERSE INTO?
This is the law where we discover the dangers of media. When pushed to its extreme, every medium will reverse into its opposite intention. For example, when pushed to the extreme, the automobile — a medium intended to increase the speed of transportation — reverses into traffic jams and fatal accidents. This law of reversal can often be the most difficult to predict.

New questions serve to move our minds beyond traditional ways of thinking. This is why McLuhan framed his Laws of Media as questions rather than statements. This is not an analytic activity, but one that demands creativity, synthesis, and openness. Our media present us with an array of questions and no clear answers. McLuhan knew our cultural context was always changing, so the methods he used to investigate and analyze culture were quite unconventional. His last published words echo with prophetic truth:

In a global information environment, the old pattern of education in answer finding is one of no avail...Survival and control will depend on the ability to probe and to question in the proper way and place...The need is not for fixed concepts but rather for the ancient skill of navigating through an ever uncharted and unchartable milieu. Else we will have no more control of this technology and environment than we have of the wind and the tides.⁵

We are being invited to develop and hone the ancient skill of “navigating through an ever uncharted and unchartable” culture. This skill is not developed through finding the right answers and locking onto fixed ideas, but rather by having the courage and wisdom to ask the right questions at the right time and place.

A FISH OUT OF WATER

Our technological society has entered a stage unprecedented in human history. We are witnessing such rapid and overwhelming innovation that it’s dizzying. And with each new change, we see a shift in the way we relate to one another. If relationships are central to our faith, and if the medium is the message, then it’s incumbent on us to ask a very important question: how does our electronic culture shape our communities?

We can’t answer this question from our current vantage point. There is a Chinese parable that says, “If you want to learn what water is, don’t ask a fish.” The reason? Water is the natural environment of the fish; it is all the fish has ever known. In fact, the fish hardly knows that it exists. So too with us. We are so immersed in our technological society, we hardly notice it is there. Therefore, to understand what is happening in this day and age, we have to get out of the fish bowl and out of the water. The best way to do that is to travel back in time to witness the values of a culture prior to modern technology.

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next

Comments

Eric Brown

"You can't change the methods without changing the message." So true...

Joe

There are 2 aspects here: 1) worldly/flesh; and 2) spirit/Trinitarian.

On the deep, spiritual level, the truth is the word, the medium is the Trinity, with the Holy Spirit being "the medium." The truth/word never changes, but the meaning and depth of understanding changes as we mature spiritually (towards the Divine connection). If Christians really understand and live this, the worldly media/medium won't have a deep lasting effect, and the "programming" effect of advertising is minimal as we focus on God. We then look at the world around us in a MUCH different way. The worldly methods and message will change, but the truth never does - it's nice to know in a crazy world there is that one Constant!!

L.L. Barkat

"When you tap into the most intense or emotionally poignant experiences, you discover the trigger for all consumer impulses. "

Just that. So fascinating.

When we act as consumers, then, what are we doing? Is it perhaps a form of spiritual experience, as we perhaps try to tap into, or alter, our own psyches through action?

Edward van Vliet

of course, this year edmonton, aberta (canada) is celebrating his centenary so there's been a lot of mcluhanery going on here. An interesting collection of essays exploring his throught and its connection to his own theological positioning can be found at gingko press (which publishes a number of books about mcluhan - love the carson collaboration, the book of probes) or here:
http://www.amazon.com/Medium-Light-Reflections-Religion/dp/1606089927/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318874261&sr=1-1

Curtis

There's a potent irony to each of us who are posting replies here because we "connected" with this excellent article.

Today is the very last day of my 3 month sabbatical - my first in 22 years of ministry. One month was spent in the DR Congo; a week in the intensely crowded streets of Kinshasa and the rest in rural villages. So for that time I was the fish who was plucked out of my technological fish tank and experienced something very different. Although I believed myself to be reasonably well connected to people here in Portland OR, the intensity of constant connection in the Congo was at first exhausting. In Kinshasa, a city of almost 12 million people, everyone is so amazingly linked. You walk amidst endless crowds on jammed streets, or ride in mini-vans with more than 20 people stacked on wooden benches. And people talk! Boy do they talk. On those mini-van busses, conversations among strangers are unceasing. "Where are you going? What are you doing today? Where did you get that? Do you know how to get to...?" You buy your daily bread, your vegetables, and change your money right on the street from people you see everyday. People ask about every detail of life, regularly. You either interact and rely on people, or you don't survive. Literally.

In the villages it was much different - the crowds are missing - but the connections are much the same. With anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people in a village, you are known and your family is know. It's likely that families have stayed in the same village for generations, and the stories of families are known as well. I've been reading about African culture and came across this from John Mbitit, a Kenyan theologian: He writes this about African culture:

"Whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group, and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. The individual can only say: 'I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am.' This is a cardinal point in the understanding of the African view of man"

I read these words before my trip and they were interesting. After visiting, though, they took on new depth.

Since I've returned to the states and my techno-centric life, a heavy loneliness has swept over me. I am so deeply disconnected and I'm very much looking forward to going back to my church (tomorrow!). I'm not overly giddy about getting back to work (shh, don't tell), but I miss people so much. The time in Africa taught me how we have gotten so accustomed to living in relationally impoverished patterns, that we don't even feel the loss.

Mike

There are a lot of great thoughts here, but I most enjoyed the introduction. I have often felt that the religion of our time is Consumerism.

In the past, religion has always answered the question of how to get god or the gods to give us what we want. Now there's no need for that answer. To get what we want, we just reach out and swipe or we click here. No wonder the question of God's existence has changed to God's significance.

Michael H

"“The methods change, but the message stays the same.” There it is — the rallying cry of the evangelical church..."

Aha, the Evangelical Thing. Been there, done that, read Bible, came home to the Catholic Church, sigh of relief.

However, Christianity is not medium versus message, it's the communication of both a message and simultaneously the Thing it refers to. The Presence of God says "I am present". Most of The West has subtly changed this "message" and hence the methods have changed.

Brad Waller

Praise God! Marshall McLuhan is being rediscovered, but in a more up-to-date and Christian context. Shane Hipps' excellent article does great service toward protecting and maintaining "authentic" Christian community.

Comments are now closed

ALSO BY SHANE HIPPS

ALSO IN SCIENCE + TECH

by Jimmy Lin

by Jonathan Merritt

by James K.A. Smith and Amos Yong