I am never much a fan of social media. I still remember that I was only most active online during middle school and later chose Wechat as my only prime communication software in high school. Now, I really prefer face-to-face meetings. I don’t pretend that I’ve understand every line, but after reading the first chapter in Present Shock, I believe that I agree many of the examples Rushkoff listed. I was definitely present shocked: first getting annoyed by my friend when she messaged me all the time as I was trying to read a book, feeling in need of checking my Instagram and Moments (in Wechat), and finally getting tired of all the reality shows and instant updates. I then gave up: there’s no need to acquire all the latest trivias of whom has gone for a trip in Japan or whom just had a beautiful, delicious brunch. I suppose that is why time is fleeting for me and yes, I’ve been repeating myself due to the impact of internet and social media. My life is segmented when I cannot even tell what I’ve been doing. 🙂 It’s time to say NO to all of this.
As Rushkoff convinced us of the state of present shock we are in, he, in the end, offered a way to cope with this: “Games offer a healthier, or at least more active, response to the collapse of narrativity confounding much of the rest of popular culture.” I believe it can be a good transition. When we abandoned the authoritative narratives, we are at loose, unorganised, chaotic in being storytellers ourselves because the truth is that we really don’t know anything. We don’t know what we are actually doing. There is no one to prepare programs or speeches to tell us what is going on, so everyone just stopped caring about stories except for when it became a popular hasgtag (then it just sinks in history). Game, in my opinion, creates an illusion of telling individual stories. After all, games are programmed. Doesn’t that sound familiar? A new authoritative voice has emerged. Therefore, trying to find a solution? “Of course, it’s not as easy as all that.”
Still, I believe in stories. If not stories, be it history. If not history, be it time. I’ve talked about this in my other post. No matter what, there will be stories. It can be non-linear, illogical, infinite or mad. Perhaps in the future, as we look back in time, this may be just another age of chaos, of repetitive lives, of “useless” copies of human genes, until someday a great change happens and alter the human history, reaching a turning point when the quantitative accumulation triggers qualitative change.
