The American Intellect, A to Z: "C = Intellectualism Dot Com: The Influence of Technological Communication, Part III: "After School Special"

I've been poking at this subject from more than one side, so look for three sections, all told:

OLD SCHOOL
NEW SCHOOL

Today I'm going to wrangle all of this into an AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL. (Yes, I was a child of the 70s and pretty sure I watched every show ABC ever produced.)

So we have the notion of the Old School, which can be boiled down to the following set of camps:
• Neo-Luddites (those who are resistant to or against the development of technology)
• Technocrats (centers of power which choose skill sets over human elements)
• Fundamentalists (those who promote that science and thinking do not replace faith)
• Social Anti-Intellectuals (those who think eggheads suck)
• Traditionalists (people who insist that tradition always trumps innovation)

And we have the notion of the New School, which can be boiled down to the following set of camps:
• Dissenters (people using technology to mobilize change)
• Users (people who love technology, fix technology, improve technology)
• Equalizers (people who use technology to level the playing field, encouraging equality, diversity)
• Defenders (those who know the risks of technology but support its positive developments)
• Liberators (people who use technology as a way to expression without gatekeeping)

So if we had a rumble, who would win?

My feeling is that together, everyone would win if they just wouldn't rumble about it.

Here are some ways to think outside polarities:

1. Develop more tolerance.
Tolerance is not just an issue for conservatives (though it seems as if it could only be a challenge for conservativism). I have friends who are quite left wing who are just as intolerant of certain cultural developments that don't "swing" their way. In fact, the people who I think are the best ambassadors when it comes to using technology are the folks in the twin middles: the political and economic middles. They see where things have been and where things are going. They make their decisions based upon multiple sources of information. They aren't as likely to adhere to a staunch position if someone can show them quality evidence or thoughtful argumentation to the contrary.

If Neo-Luddites could be more accepting of technology as an ongoing earmark of human development, then maybe they wouldn't be so fearful of the future.

If consummate Users were to develop more tolerance for non-users (and their slowness to adapt), then maybe non-users might be inspired to try new things.

If people in general stopped using derisive terms like nerd and geek to describe people who are tech friendly, maybe more people would be interested in learning more about technology in general.

If those who use technology to advance their interests outside the normal venues (such as writers who self publish) were to show some earnest respect to those who operate inside the normal venues, maybe there wouldn't be so much disagreement between the two with regard to the quality of their separate efforts.

And I can't close a discussion about tolerance without wondering if it will ever be possible for the movers and shakers of fundamentalism to think of their work not as an either/or scenario in collision with scientific or progressive thinking, but as a kind of complement to it.

Personally, I don't struggle with the idea that faith and science could exist without being at odds with one another. (And I'm not talking Intelligent Design here, folks.) But the majority of the world does. A little tolerance between these two camps could really change it up for the better.

2. Accept that your own personal learning curve will never end.
I am always surprised, and saddened by, people who really think that, once they're out of school, they really don't think there is anything more to learn. I know people like this inside my own family, and the outcome of that attitude has been challenging for them. They resist learning about new technologies, new forms of media, new ways of thinking. But when they come up on problems that could be easily solved with technology, they are unable to do so and must negotiate them in ways that are less efficient and effective, and which can be even more expensive and time-consuming to do the old way.

While I'm not saying we all need to accept everything that comes our way without a second thought (because "second thinking" has never been more necessary to survive our information-saturated culture), I do think we need to come around to the idea that there will always be new things to learn and that, eventually, we will have to learn them.

That means figuring out how to set the VCR or the Tivo. That means finally going online. That means using a fax machine, or a cell phone, or an mp3 player. That means spending the time to figure out how all of these things work, and accepting that we may not be able to figure it all out right away, but that it's okay to not be completely tech savvy from the get go.

It gets easier over time, like anything in life. It also brings with it so many rewards and benefits that the extra time spent learning new software, say, or navigating the web will be a small price to pay for the way technology can simplify and add dimension to our lives.

3. Be judicious and thoughtful about using media technology.
If we continue to saturate our children's lives with technology, while withholding the other more sensory and personal pleasures that come from activities that don't involve a plug-in or a screen, we may very well create new generations of people who have missed out on some very important aspects of what it means to be human. Variety is the spice of life; we need to be selective about how technology influences our lives (as much as we are able).

This means making choices. And we do like having choices in American life, don't we? Except that people don't realize how many choices they actually have, so they either don't make these choices or assume they can't make them.

For me, as a parent, there are certain boundaries: No television in the morning while the kids are getting ready for school. No electronica for them until all their homework and chores are done. Nice days are for spending outside and unplugged. The satellite service channel and ratings locks, and the passwords, exist for a reason. No incoming or outgoing gadgets or gizmos at social events like slumber parties.

For me, as an individual, there are still more boundaries: Do not answer email on weekends. Make phone calls to friends whenever I want to chat (no emails or text messages). No more than two hours of TV at a time. Use Tivo ruthlessly to skip commercials and to take away the television's ability to reorganize my day. Do not wear earbuds in public unless I am certain I will not be interacting with other people. Use technology to learn, first and foremost. Think outside the media box.

This, for me, is the crux of the problem as it relates to American intellectualism. Technology gives us a huge range of options for accessing information. But we have become a culture of celebrity-infatuated, entertainment-consuming people who are, in fact, losing touch with our ability to think for ourselves, or even to find value in thinking for ourselves. Sure, media technology can be wonderfully engaging and gives us easy access to entertainment like never before. But the media makers out there giving us our virtual thrills benefit by their ability to seduce us with cheap, easy access to films, music, images, and the like. They are not necessarily interested in our betterment.

Let's not forget, too, that information technology can also feed our intellectual selves, if we use it at all, and in doing so, use it wisely. It can encourage us to think freely, to gather and interpret information about an issue from multiple facets. It can create a space where a shared dialog with others from all over the world can lead to problem solving and change for betterment, but only if we remember that technology is a tool, and not a devil—or an angel.

Conclusion
In the end, it's up to us to engage in self-inquiry to determine whether we want to use this tool only for fun, but for something beyond ourselves. America as a whole hasn't come to that bridge yet, not as a whole culture. Small groups of people are working their way there: grassroots political activists, closet intellectuals whose lives are filled with practical considerations (like paying the bills and raising children), cultural creatives, science hobbyists, local community volunteers. I don't know if or when the moment comes when we finally render a peaceful truce between our virtual and (for lack of a better term) "real" lives. Maybe we'll all just wake up one day to find we've achieved the perfect balance between the two. Or maybe we'll always be at odds with the demands of both. Regardless, we have the means to make these aspects of our lives work for us and through us, we just have to be conscious about our decisions, be willing to learn, and come to tolerate each other in our singular quests to make information and media technology work, not only for ourselves, but for the world beyond our own little bubbles.

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I just reread Fahrenheit 451, and was left reeling by a whole new subtext I hadn't really picked up on when I read Bradbury's classic the first time over 20 years ago: not only is his novel about book banning, burning and censorship, but it's about the decline of original free thought and the rise of media and entertainment as replacements for traditional human relationships. Bradbury had quite the vision 50 years ago, predicting so much of the state of our new media lives as it exists in the present that even the obvious exaggerations aren't so unlikely. It's a great book for thinking about our relationship to media, though, and whether we want to have someone control it for us or to be able to control it ourselves, and at what costs. In a discussion about the pros and cons of information media in a climate where intellectualism is on the wane, these are precisely the kinds of questions we need to wrap our minds around.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Forthcoming topic: "The American Intellect, A to Z: "D = Dumbdown"


UPDATE 3.14.2008: I've decided to suspend further entries to this series indefinitely. Life is overfull. Thanks for reading! Rhymes With Camera regular entries continue, all the same. TKS