We still know very little about how the senses absorb digitally mediated information: how minds and bodies sift to order it, or how it affects feelings of identity, mood, emotion, memory or desire. And yet, in the UK, teenagers are spending an average of 31 hours a week online.
Currently the majority of these multimedia digital interactions take place behind a sheet of glass, or where fingers touch only the generic tactility of a plastic keyboard, or use the micro dexterity of a mouse.
Will this affect the way their bodies sense and connect with the material world, or with each other?
3 Comments
Censoring comments can be self-defeating.
Websites and other rapid information systems can easily overwhelm. We learn to desensitise but are never completely at ease. When I compare the different experiences of sewing and scrolling through the internet, one is fluid and inspirational – feeling in the right element, whereas the other can make me feel threatened. While it may not be’ flight-or-fight’ it does make me feel anxious. It shouldn’t…at the end of the day I hold the on/off switch at the end of my fingers, if it gets too much I can opt out.
It makes me think about the saying ‘inspiration comes at the pace of a walking camel’. Maybe it’s not about the digital interface alone, but the speed it works at. Either way, it’s too easy to feel out of one’s depth. Is it simply about how I invested my childhood and the way my brain formed as a result?
Almost definitely I’d say! Though we’ve yet to really see it manifest. One thing for sure is that with regard to human physiological development and history it’s virtually unnatural….and yet it’s now a massive part of everyday life.
I’ve just been struck now at how physical materials (for me at least) move or are experienced at a much slower pace than digital materials – our eyes and the ’something-just-moved-what-does-that-mean’ reflex are working overtime with quite a lot of digital media.
I have no idea if that last sentence is even linked to the first, or the actual blog post for that matter! But it’s late, and i’ve overdone my screen time tonight. Signing off….with many new questions. Thanks!