An interesting post, as ever. And two interesting comments (so far).

But I too wonder whether what you see is really there, or whether it is an artefact you see because you are trained to look for such things.

I see little real evidence that we humans are changing significantly. Not at the fundamental biological-neurobiological-psychological level. But I do see that sometimes – at least for those of us with access to new communications technology – we express ourselves in new ways enabled by that technology. This blog for example.

The cloud metaphor is a good one but for a different reason. It is not so much that we sit at the centre of an information cloud (which we increasingly do, but that is an outside-in view not directly related to self), but that we sit at the centre of a relationship cloud. Close to us and in pretty much full visibility are our family and close friends. A bit further out are our work colleagues and other acquaintances. Further out still are people we met who me may remember if we should meet them again. And so on. Newer electronically-enabled relationships are just another variation upon the same old theme. The only real differences are the medium and what you might call the non-physical nature of the relationship. But none of this significantly changes things at the fundamental biological-neurobiological-psychological level.

Perhaps we should take more care to ensure that the mediun does not become too much of the message.

Graham Hill

While I think you (and commentor Quqoda) are correct to stress the impact of electronic mediation on the sense of self, I am not so sure this phenomenon is new. My mother was a telephonist, working from the late 1940s. Connecting international calls from Australia (where she was employed) to the rest of the world, she would talk regularly with the international operators at the other end, in, say, London or New York. She did this so often that she could recognize these people by their voices, along with those of her regular customers, and even became friends with many of them. As a result, she had numerous “online” friendships with other telephonists, with telecoms engineers, and with customers from around the world, most of whom she has never met. This was quite common among her colleagues in the industry. Indeed, I expect the phenomenon goes back at least to the days of the inter-continental telegraph. (In Australia’s case, that was 1872.) So I believe there’s a history of electronic mediation of the self, at least in one segment of the population, which perhaps would make a good PhD thesis in social-anthro, and help in understanding the impacts of our current online society.

I think it may be a defining feature of us baby-boomers to imagine that whatever we do is being done for the first time in human history. I think that we are usually wrong to assume that.

‘Cloud’ is an appropriate description for consciousness and the machinery that houses it – the brain. The mind is a vast reservoir of experiences, knowledge and associations that can and are drawn together into urgent focus in response to outside stimulus, or inner demand. When playing on old parlor game in which across 12 different categories a word beginning with the same letter must be identified, the mind is forced to reorganize its content in a spontaneous and unfamiliar way. At no other time does the mind behave in this way, but there are many instances in which the cloud re-orients around a different organizing principle, in daily life. How organic and flexible this connection is depends on the individual, technology and the pervading mores of the time, particularly those among generational cohorts.

Gen Ys for example are comfortable with using electronic media, not just as channel of communication supportive a relationship sustained elsewhere, but as the predominate basis for its existence and continuity. Within their active social circle there are people who they’ve never met yet consider their friendships as real as from the off-line world. Perhaps the most interesting impact of technology upon our neurological cloud is in the opportunity it affords to play and experiment as different characters, with different personalities. With so many dimensions that the ‘self’ consists of, we are arguably living in an age that offers far greater personal fulfillment because of the opportunity to spend time actively engaged in each psychological state.

While this is an emerging as still relatively new territory facilitated through two-way electronic communications media, brands – a form of cloud themselves – have been acting in this capacity for several centuries. By affiliating with a specific brand an individual gains fulfillment of a particular order and magnitude. The constellation of brands an individual embraces is likely to show some telling contrasts (if not outright contradictions) which reflect both the personality and relative comfort in public vs. private displays of consumption. This is why the woman who wears Ann Taylor clothes to work and drives a Camry, a practical car that doesn’t draw much attention to herself, could also wear La Perla underwear during the day to fulfill her more racy side. Or the man in his mid 20s driving a Mitsubishi eclipse tricked out with accessories also buys a lot of Kraft mac ‘n’ cheese dinners and pizza because of surrogate comfort it brings.