Stephanie Bennett's Blog

Who are the new Ecologists?
Managing the Media Environment in a New Age of Digital Dominance.

September 17, 2005
By Stephanie Bennett

At least since the 1970’s the emphasis on protecting the world’s natural resources has been increasing, particularly for those ecologically-minded folks known as “the environmentalists.” Today, in the nascent stages of the 21st century, they are often called “Greenies,” and though they were the first to sound the trumpet, with a call to “preserve the waterways,” “save the planet,” and “protect the whales,” their message has proliferated and has come to be normative in everyday life.

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Those who were among the many who sounded these early warning alarms, did so to largely clueless mass audiences; average people like me who – aside from taking care not to be a litterbug -- were mostly unaware of the way our lush green pastures and pure, flowing waterways were becoming increasingly rare sights.

The concern and voice of the ecologically-minded often seem radical – even ideological – but their wisdom has so oft proved true, and the small victories they have won have worked to turn back some of the disturbing trends of pollution and environmental degradation. In many cases, awareness has been raised, bills have been passed, and work has been done to preserve America’s natural resources. For example, large chunks of the Everglades are now governmentally protected areas in South West Florida; once-endangered species such as the American Eagle, Black Grizzly Bear, and the Northern Spotted Owl have been restored, are flourishing, and no longer are in danger of disappearing from the earth. The maverick mentality of yesterday’s environmentalists may not have been popular, but it has been much needed.

This brings us to consider the features of the landscape in today’s world. Are there important aspects of our environment that are in danger of disappearing? Steadily, our everyday lives are becoming cluttered with the tools of new media, so much so, that one might call the landscape of everyday life a sort of – media eco-system -- and the study of it, media ecology. You say I’m over-reacting to the preponderance of the tools of technology? Think about it: Interactive online games such as the SIMS or Everquest create artificial environments that simulate the community life that once was integral and unavoidable in America. Cell phones and palm pilots have become semi-permanent attachments to the hip and ear of many, sounding off in theatres, libraries, classrooms, cars, and churches -- to say nothing of the steady drone of ‘old media” such as the television and radio. At every turn our world is swamped with new media. It’s a veritable wetland of communication technology out there.

So what of other types endangered species? What about the danger faced by the Cognitus Habitus Humanus, that human creature who can think, plan, process and relate to other human beings in “real time,” authentically, honestly, and with a genuine desire for advancing and sharing the organic process we call, “life?”

Will Cognitus Habitus go the route of the Neanderthal? Will the fate of the human being, as some researchers and technologists hope and plan for, evolve into an amalgamation of the organic and the artificial? Will computer/brain prosthesis research that is “cutting edge” today become the vehicle for human beings to make the next great and natural leap in human evolution? Many technologists think so, and are making plans to see this happen in the near future. Take, for instance, the work of Raymond Kurzweil, inventor of the first commercially marketed large vocabulary speech recognition technology. As founder and CEO of KurzweilAI.net (applied intelligence), Kurzweil is also the author of several books, such as “The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, “ and the upcoming, “The Singularity is Near, When Humans Transcend Biology.” With software development and research that has helped those with disabilities compensate for lack or loss of human function, Kurzweil is just one among the many who are nurturing a shift in the way humanity is perceived at its very core. These changes are just part of the new technological environment in which we all are presently immersed.

If we would take the time to look a bit deeper at the way in which we use our tools of technology, -- look at mediated environment in which the bulk of the western world is presently immersed – look past the invisibility of the gadgets we use – we might see that dependence upon them for convenience sake puts the human race at risk of losing many normal human functions such as memory, relational skills, manners, civility, community, and numerous other social elements associated with the Human Experience.

Life is an organic process. From the dirt we came and to the dirt we will return. There is a connection with the earth that is undeniable, which is probably key to the reason people think of vacations as getting back to the earth. Although surely people do vacation in NYC or Las Vegas, the more common thought is beach, mountains, or national park. It’s part of the human experience to gravitate toward the organic. After all, human beings are organic beings, not robots. We may work with machines and cope well with them, but when we want a break, we head for the hills.

So, have you decided that I’m I a 21st century Luddite? Do I run the risk of sounding like a quack maverick, beating a drum that is drowned out by the much louder din of approximately 3 TVs in every household, 6 billion web pages, thousands of Internet discussion listservs and Usenet groups, and the presence of 159 million *cell phones in the U.S. alone?

Perhaps.

And so, you may wonder, “what does it matter?” What does it really, really matter? If humans can live comfortably within the confines of a concrete jungle of our various and growing metropoles and suburbs, if we can subsist on the barest of quiet spaces to organize our lives and relate to each other in splotches of conversation here and there through mediated means, what does it really matter?

Uh, can you say “quality of life?”

Lest we forget about a little something called “quality,” I am here to remind you. The gadgets that keep our lives crackling with communication also have the great potential to cut away personal quiet, one-to-one conversation, and family time that focuses on the people in the families rather than the media we watch or participate in together.

All this to leave you with a little reminder, and say, “knock, knock.”

Who’s there?

I hope it’s you, and not a reasonable facsimile of what once was known as the being called human.
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* reported by the U.S. Census Bureau for the year, 2003.