Today’s class was extremely interesting. People hardly ever think about the enormous impact of technologies of the past, and the extent to which they changed not only people’s lives, but also how they viewed the world. For example, it’s hard for us now to imagine what the world was like before electricity or telephones. We never had to do without them, although we do get a glimpse into that world when there is a power outage. But that’s different too – for us, it’s a temporary halt in the flow of electricity. We know what electricity does in our lives, we’re familiar with it, we depend on it. Before it was discovered and packaged for homes, businesses, everywhere, people couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have it. To them it was the most natural thing in the world to use candles or gaslight, and to live with the dark in a way in which we never have to. Professor O’Malley described the “displacement in space and time” that people experienced when new technology like this was implemented. How disorienting each new technology must have been, even if it improved their lives!
The internet is a modern-day “displacing” technology. Just framing it in our minds in a way we could understand was an enormous challenge – at least for non-techies. And then there was the learning curve. And now it seems like a tremendous information overload. We can access just about any information we want or need. It’s almost instant. Is the instant access to so much information from all over the world really a good thing? In many ways it is, but we also have to get used to that displacement in time and space. We have to get used to experiencing what someone else is experiencing because we can see things happening in real-time, or nearly real-time. It has an incredible impact on people – not only do we have to handle the emotions of our own situations (good or bad), but we also have to take on the immediacy of being exposed to other people’s situations (good or bad). This can be extremely overwhelming and disorienting.
Another aspect of this displacement in time and space is that there is so much information being thrown around that people don’t always know what information they can trust. There is a huge amount of misinformation out there, and we can’t always tell what is accurate. For example, if someone tweets out a message that contains wrong information, and then that message gets retweeted by that twitter account’s followers, and then their followers retweet, suddenly there can be thousands of people receiving wrong information without necessarily knowing it. And websites can be just about as misleading as they want to be. Along with all the wonderful benefits of the internet comes the responsibility of trying to discern good information from bad.
As was discussed in class, this displacement in time and space happens in so many areas, such as movies. The Saving Private Ryan example showed the disconcerting effect of being an omniscient observer, seeing the action from impossible points of view. I think we’ve been exposed to this for so long that it’s natural for us. However, I still vividly remember (and always will) the shocking effect that the movie Das Boot had on me (and I presume many others). I realize now that what I was feeling was a disturbing, almost cruel displacement. All through the movie we are “living” with a German U-boat crew as though we were one of them, getting to know them as real people, and becoming attached to them. The last scene, where the US swoops in to bomb them as they are getting off the docked U-boat, was like a huge slap in the face or punch in the stomach. I found myself shouting (internally) No! No! Don’t bomb them! The movie had done such a thorough job of displacement that the roles were completely reversed in the viewer’s mind. Suddenly the US military had become the bad guys. I got the point – they’re all real people in a war, and each side believes in its cause. But I still can’t help feeling rather resentful at being so shockingly manipulated, without even realizing it until after the big punch at the end. It felt like a betrayal. I’m extremely glad that we learned about this in class, because now I will be more aware of how the viewer is being controlled.