I wanted to continue my new insight into Noetic study in relation to media and found this book. I read the first chapter and thought it would be interesting to highlight what we all have...
The chapter helped to put into perspective what is going on up in your brain and how to become aware of it. When thinking of it in terms of media I felt like I had a million fire flies in my head at one, each individual one important but couldn't fulfill the role of connecting to all of them. I think I had it all backwards. I think of Nicholas Carr, from the article is Google Making Us Stupid? When he talks about how the Net absorbs a medium, the medium is re-created in the Net's image. Here is what I'll share from the book-
We are in a continuous dialogue with ourselves that never stops.
It is incredibly important for us to take time to listen, that can be difficult because we feel to close to it to be objective. We must then step back, and watch it converse as it takes on both sides of any thought. Frankly, then, why are you still listening? If all it does is disturb everything your doing! The chapter explains, how can you be talking and listening at the same time? You would know what your going to say before you say it, it is simply looking for a simple place to rest. The voice then can be a vocalizing mechanism to make it seem like there is a voice inside your head. So you are not the voice of the mind, you are the one who hears it. Your thoughts have far less impact on this world than one would like to think.
Although through watching the Persuaders and watching clips from The Media Education foundation, we see that the world of public relations and marketing has done an amazing job keeping the voice in our head driving us to stores to buy things we don't need! Consume more than we need! Finally stealing time from us that could be used for greater human growth. I completely understand why you, Dr. Williams haven't had a TV in decades, and why my brother and I as kids were put outside A LOT by our parents.
Incessant internal chatter, and the commotion the mind makes about life is what causes problems, not life itself. The book uses a teakettle example, which I think I can relate to the web 2.0, 21st century of media. Basically when we are exposed to something we are hearing the voice inside narrating for how we-saw-labeled- and judged it. All occurring in a split second. Then this builds up inside and we become "not okay" we feel we have to release energy and we do that by talking. With what we are "fed" by media conglomerates today and 24/7 has the potential to set off a lot of steaming tea kettles, and quick. Sounds loud, and scary, and insignificant to human civilization.
Lastly, I wanted to mention Rene Girard's work, especially his theory of mimetic desire, an aspect of behavior that affects learning and desire. We take our direct experiences into our realm of thoughts and they interact with our value system and historical experiences. Being aware of experiences with outside world, then interact with the mental world. In the thought world there's always something you can do to control the experience. Enters, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, from the Persuaders. Calling the attention to our brains and how they function, he is certainly a genius for finding the white space of how to control the thoughts that occur when we experience the rush of purchasing products. This gave me a different perspective on mind media and allowed to me to make connections in the world of epistemology, branching off into other areas of study.
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