Ramble: Outhouse, Inhouse - RePlumbing the Digital Self

Did indoor plumbing change us?  Of course it did.  We don't think much about the how of it, now.  Same for our sense of self and how technology is changing us; we will not realize the convenience of outsourcing our mental thinking until we look back on it.  Thus my topic is on doors to the self for this ramble as we enter a postmaterialist culture where stuff that defines us, externally and internally as think of how  it is altering us.

Metaphorically, the outhouse stands open -- This chapel in Cortelez, not too far north of Santa Fe, faces away from the road in a field, evidence of something that hasn't yet turned to dust.  The blue door is painted and shut while the outhouse door lies on the ground and both are a testament to our (old and changed) doorways to the self.

Evidence that we are changing:

• Replumbing our minds -- Nicholas Carr's July cover story in Atlantic Monthly, Is Google Making Us Stupid is my most highly recommended reading link about how our plastic brains are changing with new technology.   We're replumbing our sense of self.
• Replumbing ourselves via our stuff --How we think and our sense of self is changing.  You Are What You Buy.... is the topic of a WaPo book review about how we carve out our identities by consuming. Our stuff is us.  But we are changing our ideas about stuff, anyway. I see my children more interested in the self as stuff online via Facebook than stuff of emotional attatchment or definition that clutters their personal space.  Their digital selves are even evident in the new unused photo album my daughter sent to Goodwill. She needs no tactile, tangible evidence of her memories as I do.  Or once did.
• What we pay for and what we must replumb --  Our culture of insidious debt (read American Interest: A Nation in Debt) made me think we are not postmodern anymore.  We are becoming postconsumerist and digital and some are enslaved to plastic cards as the self defined.

Digital outhouses can unclutter the detritus and flotsam of our beings.  Who needs to remember a birthday or a phone number when your smart phone can remind you?  Who needs to remember the details of history when you can google them? Who needs to remember a map or directions when you can be guided by GPS? We are replumbing ourselves mentally and physically, internally and externally.

Go read the links, starting w/ Carr. Cheers.

Comments

[anthony]

I am sure our ancestors felt the same way when the sewing machine was invented. People thought we would lose our purpose in life with all of our free time when we moved from horses to cars and could get somewhere in ten minutes instead of all day. The refrigerator? Maybe the phone and the television too! However, although we may get our information from different places, looking it up, reading and remembering it will be no different from grabbing the old World Book Enclyclopedia to write all of those school reports.We were never lacking in information, it's what you do with what you learn that is important.

[allison]

I'm thrilled to have indoor plumbing, and most of our modern conveniences. I like to read online, but don't find it difficult to read books or longer articles because of a short attention span, it's more due to time constraints. I couldn't even read the links in one sitting. (but then I was at work - shhhh)

[Kathy]

Great analysis!!!
My kids use Facebook as a primary receptacle of their photos, but they still love curling up with the photo albums I made before I got so busy. As much as I love the ease of seeing photos online, I appreciate being able to pick up a photo album and read it with my family on the couch. Maybe someday we'll feel that way about the laptop, but we're not there yet.