Awakening to the screen : an analysis of the human condition in the age of ubiquity

Abstract

The disembodied and hyperconnected lives we lead in cyberspace leave tangible effects on the self and how it interacts with the environment it inhabits both online and offline. I will argue that our conception of reality has been altered by the development of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1996) and its rapid and incessant spread since the end of the millennium. This is in part due to the ability – or rather the need (Turkle, 2005, 2011a) – to be constantly connected with others in the hybrid space (de Souza e Silva, 2004), which has brought about an amalgamation of what was previously viewed as the public and private spheres (Habermas, 1991; Arendt, 2012; Finlayson, 2016), resulting in a radical change in the characteristics, events and situations that form the essential experiences of human existence (Turkle, 2011b; Baudrillard, 1994; Jenkins, 2006, 2009). I also maintain that communication technology, together with the Global Market, has created a smaller world (Milgram, 1967; Dodds, Muhamad, Watts 2003; Fowler & Christakis, 2010) with regards to spatio-temporal distance (Virilio, 2005), but it has consequently led to a more isolated and disjointed self alienated from an increasingly more divided society (Baudrillard, 2014; Turkle, 2011a, 2011b; Vallor, 2011; Spinello, 2011). The role of philosophy at the start of this century is to examine and understand the transformation society and the individuals that form it have undergone in the digital age. In doing so, the goal of the philosopher should be to guide the globalised world towards an ethical and socio-politically beneficial relationship to ubiquitous computing. If we continue to use ubiquitous media with no contemplation on their impact on our very existence, we risk losing sight of what it means to be a human being and the vitality of human connections in a functional society.