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Mind Over Media

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“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” 

– Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media

As a writer, I struggle to find the perfect opening. Something slightly confessional is always good. It confides in the reader, as if letting him in on a little secret. The screen before me tries to help by underlining misspelled words in red and fragment sentences in green. I alter thoughts based on the technology that precedes me. I edit, delete, and process words to dig a path for the message.

All this – movable text, grammar check, even thoughts laid out in horizontal lines to form what we call sentences – are tools we created for self-expression.  Long before Freud and Jung captured internal states of mind, artists and poets did so in their chosen medium. The tradition of storytelling kept tribes together, forming communities around the spoken word.

The advent of the printing press changed everything. Reading became central to our habits of mind so much so that today, the illiterate are at quite a disadvantage. We start introducing ideas early by reading to babies. If you’ve ever done this, you know that they chew on books much like adults chew on ideas. We enter a text, take in whole arguments, and become fed by words.

Reflecting on my own media diet, I am struck (and a bit horrified) by how much I consume – not only words, but images and sound. I’ve had to be more selective of what I take in due to technology’s barrage of onrushing stimuli as my evolving media rituals contend with competing forces.

In the mornings, I fantasize waking up and drinking coffee over a real newspaper, but I usually check Instagram instead. NPR accompanies me on my commute to work. If I have a few minutes between patients, I will check email or catch up on a handful of text messages. Music is a necessity and often a regulating part of my diet. At night, I will tuck into a good book. I blog. I facebook. And yes, I’ve even texted my husband who is watching television in the other room.

I wonder how all this media consumption is affecting me. And as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I wonder how it is affecting my patients. I speculate that certain faculties are developing, while others are regressing. I know my own reading habits have changed, due in part to the sound bite syndrome plaguing the airwaves. Even the way I use language has changed, as texting abbreviations sneak their way into casual conversation. 

Perhaps these new technologies are a bit like learning a language. I’m amazed by how quickly children become versed in it. The beholding and the becoming turn literal during critical periods of plasticity. And we grow up shaped by the very tools we create.

The Millennial Generation’s identity is already being shaped as a result of these tools. They are more fluent in new technologies and learn to use them creatively. They are thought to be more peer-oriented by their use of social networking. And they are also more likely to be engaged with politics by “friending” the President online. While I’m excited about the possibilities, I also have reservations. For example, the push to multi-task borders absurdity as children text, listen to music, watch TV, and try to do homework all at the same time. Who knows what the impact is, and is there even time to consider it?

The trickle-down effects of mass media catch every facet of our lives and in essence provide a manmade ecosystem. On an international level, the messages sent through sound waves tell us how to perceive other countries. These attitudes permeate the psyche of a nation and can promote a sense of fear or sense of safety. On a cultural level, music can stylize a decade and a single book, like Harry Potter, can stir the moral imagination among a generation of youth. On an individual level, a photograph can retrieve an isolated memory and a handheld gadget can be a self-object.

As media becomes increasingly multimodal, I wonder how are we developing and what are we becoming? What is in its infancy? What is in its latency? And what is coming into age? And as the millennium opens, how can we as families better understand the world of our children?

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