In Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglass Rushkoff discusses his interpretation of the relationship of society and rapidly evolving technology. He believes that as technology progresses, society becomes increasingly dependent on it and eventually loses touch with the traditional sense of time and reality. Through the book Rushkoff makes several insightful observations about the development of society and how technologies were often the driving force behind these “Present Shocks.”
Rushkoff uses five main ideas to defend his opinion: loosing linearity, digiphrenia, dver-dinding, fractalnoia, and apocolypto. While most people do not consider written language and story telling a technology, Rushkoff argues that evolution of the traditional narrative is a defining societal characteristic. As technology advances, society moves away from the linear, “heroic journey” story structure to “something more like putting together a puzzle by making connections and recognizing patterns” (Rushkoff 34). The loss of linearity produces the subsequent conditions of digiphrenia, over-winding, fractalnoia, and apocolypto. These are all results society’s desire to “capture the slipping moment” (Rushkoff 6) and live in the present. Unfortunately, as Rushkoff argues, this can often lead to “a skewed notion of the real and the immediate” (Rushkoff 6).
I think Present Shock was very well done. Rushkoff blatantly states his argument about technologies effect on our perception of time in the preface, as if to outline his entire idea. He then spends the rest of the book explaining each tier of his idea in detail, leaving almost no stone unturned due to the numerous detailed examples. And, each chapter includes his personal notions o...
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...er for each scenario throughout the book. However, it is not until late in the final section of “Apocalypto” that he offers his solution to the issues that create our present shock. Rushkoff says “the solution, of course, is balance” (Rushkoff 265). He suggests that we, as individuals, find a balance between living our lives truly in the present and our need for technology and media. He describes a pause and un-pause feature in our lives. We need to control our need for technology in order to avoid our technology controlling us. Although the majority of his book describes how we have little control over the developments technology causes in our lives, he believes with moderation we can live in the present both virtually and physically.
Works Cited
Rushkoff, Douglas (2013-03-21). Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now.
Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
This story observes human relations with technology and warns us of the potential consequences of allowing technology to supplement our self-sufficiency. Varshavsky shows us that we will become indistinguishable from technology, that this technology will eventually demand equality, and that this technology will steal our self-sufficiency while also becoming self-reliant. There are hints at Varshavsky’s imagined human-technology relations in current day. Society’s requirement of computers to function in the economy as laborers and consumers is one example. Another instance of society’s reliance on technology is the use of cameras and security systems to ensure safety. Another different type of technology humans rely on is pesticide to grow food for consumption. None of these examples point to technology as a negative aspect of society. On the contrary, technology has allowed human societies to expand and flourish. However, the most poignant example of Varshavsky’s envisioned human-technology relationship is human reliance on the cellphone. To name a few benefits, cellphones allow people to remember things they would otherwise forget, share their ideas with each other, and communicate with people they would normally have trouble maintaining a relationship. Cellphones are becoming a vital part of consumer culture and human existence. Without them society will digress back to a slower social, cultural, and economic existence. Human reliance on cellphones could be the first steps toward Ilya Varshavsky’s “Perpetual Motion” becoming
Technology has been around as long as people have and has been advancing ever since. It is the reason that we have access to the miraculous tools that we do today. From the forks that we eat our supper with to the cars that get us from place to place technology is everywhere. However, with technology advancing at such a rapid pace, it could pose a threat to our future society. In the short stories “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, the authors describe how bleak society could become if we do not take precautions when using technology.
Miller, Derek D Essay: Brave New World and the threat of technological growth Vol 3 2011.Print
The opening paragraph of the novel evokes the consequences of unharnessed technology and contemporary man’s contented refusal to acknowledge the consequences (Watt).
The very first sentence in the novel really stands out. “Petrograd smelt of carbolic acid.” Ayn Rand really shows the importance of this sentence by making it into its own paragraph. It is such a strong, straight forward start to the novel; it is as if I can almost smell the carbolic acid.
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
The change from differing mediums, novel and film, reveal characteristics and possibilities of narratives. Through the advancement of technology, modern writers
As a result, the society of this scary inhumane, Brave New World is full with technology that is destroying humanity form us. Yes it is a perfect world and there no war, disease, crisis but also there is no emotions, feeling, love and especially any hope which are some of the necessary part of human nature. As a conclusion, technology controls the life of everyday people from the day they were born till the day they die in this Brave New World.
Some of the characteristics of Modernism are: a desire to break conventions and established traditions, reject history, experiment, remove relativity, remove any literal meaning, and create an identity that is fluid. The rejection of history sought to provide a narrative that could be completely up for interpretation. Any literal meaning no longer existed nor was it easily given; essence became synonymous. Narrative was transformed. Epic stories, like “Hills Like White Elephants”, could occur in the sequence of a day. Stories became pushed by a flow of thoughts. The narrative became skeptical of linear plots, preferring to function in fragments. These fragments often led to open unresolved inconclusive endings. This echoes in the short story’s format. The short story functions in fragmented dialogue. Focusing on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Creating characters with unfixed, mixed views to challenge readers.
In the simplest form, there is a basic structural pattern to narratives, as expressed through Tzvetan Todorov’s explanation of narrative movement between two equilibriums. A narrative begins in a stable position until something causes disequilibrium, however, by the end of the story, the equilibrium is re-established, though it is different than the beginning (O’Shaughnessy 1999: 268). Joseph Cam...
In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray argues that we live in an age of electronic incubabula. Noting that it took fifty years after the invention of the printing press to establish the conventions of the printed book, she writes, "The garish videogames and tangled Web sites of the current digital environment are part of a similar period of technical evolution, part of a similar struggle for the conventions of coherent communication" (28). Although I disagree in various ways with her vision of where electronic narrative is going, it does seem likely that in twenty years, or fifty, certain things will be obvious about electronic narrative that those of us who are working in the field today simply do not see. Alongside the obvious drawbacks--forget marble and gilded monuments, it would be nice for a work to outlast the average Yugo--are some advantages, not the least of which is what Michael Joyce calls "the momentary advantage of our awkwardness": we have an opportunity to see our interactions with electronic media before they become as transparent as our interactions with print media have become. The particular interaction I want to look at today is the interaction of technology and imagination. If computer media do nothing else, they surely offer the imagination new opportunities; indeed, the past ten years of electronic writing has been an era of extraordinary technical innovation. Yet this is also, again, an age of incubabula, of awkwardness. My question today is, what can we say about this awkwardness, insofar as it pertains to the interaction of technology and the imagination?
Ong, Walter. “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought.” Writing Material. Ed. Evelyn Tribble. New York. 2003. 315-335.
Today, Americans are faced with the increasing change of technology in our everyday life. Sometimes the change happens and we do not realize how it affects our lives. I think it is always a good idea to talk to someone that is older than yourself, like your grandparents to remind you of the times in their younger years. Hopefully, that will open your eyes to the changes we face in this generation and the generation to come. In this chapter, the author explores the relationship of changing technology to changes in both the environment and social institutions.
According to John Horvat, an author in The Wall Street Journal, " The proper use of technology is that it should be a means to serve us and make our lives easier. A key requirement is that we should be in control." Although, the problem with today`s society, is that we are not in control. Instead of technology serving us, it is now the other way around. Society has been more dependent on its technology in recent years, than it has ever been in the past. Those who are against the up rise of the technology industries, believe that technology has taken away ...