This is part 13 in the MediaFree and Gridless arc. Focus shifted from what "accessibility" means to "how important is it to be accessible" and now to being all knowing, all seeing, omniscient and omnipresent.
After all, isn't that what being on the grid gets you? Not omnipotent, at least not yet. But isn't that where we we're headed? The sin that got Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden was that they knew too much yet not enough (Gen 3:22ff). If we unplug, get off the grid, go media free, how can we ever hope to become god?
Do people have a hard time getting unplugged?The grid in general and the 'net in particular are sources of identity and being pretty much unrivaled in modern history. Bloggers, YouTubers, FaceBookers, LinkedIners, MySpacers, emailers, list-posters, ... we're all broadcasting "This is who I think I am" and hopefully we receive in echo "Yes, that's right, that's who you are!" We are looking to be part of something greater than ourselves. This has been a need since humans recognized themselves as humans and touches on my amusement at people who are linked to 5,000 others on a social networking site. Five thousand others? Every anthropologist in the world is rolling on the floor, laughing at that one. Every neuroscientist is leaning against a wall, catching their breath and holding their sides.
Do people have a hard time getting unplugged, off the grid, away from email, cellphone and PDA?
Of course they do. One source of their social echo, their "Am I who I think I am?"-"Yes, You Are!" is gone.
Did you notice the use of capitals in the echo response? That was intentional. DesCartes taught us "I think, therefore I am" and my training went further with "I think, therefore all I know is that an 'I' exists and it's capable of projecting something the 'I' calls 'thought' into a recognition spectrum." Traditional western culture only allowed one entity to declare "I AM" and a recurring theme in literature is apotheosis. Now anybody can have their 15 minutes for less than a dollar a minute. Such a deal!
(more to follow)
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- The Curse of Social Networks
- Email Bankruptcy blog posts
- The Eventing Yourself Blog arc
- Going Off the Grid
- The MediaFree and Gridless arc
- MediaFreeZones
- Proof I'm a Luddite
- Unplugging... why is it so hard?
- Voluntary Simplification blog posts
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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