Today we can hardly live without our cars.  They provide us with the means to commute to jobs, pick up food and supplies, take us to entertainment and provide us the means to see our relatives and friends.  While cars are one of the most useful tools we own they also kill tens of thousands of people a year.  In 2010 alone there were 32,885 fatal crashes in the U.S.  While most people may not see the danger, media in the form of entertainment, video games, the internet and immersive environments is also a double edged sword.  On one side it’s a powerful tool that provides information, education and connects people from all over the world providing a means of communication and collaboration.  On the other side it separates people, provides a false sense of connection and distracts the masses from much of what is happening in the real world.

I love that through the power of the internet, I can find out anything I want to know at anytime instantly whether it’s how to make a soufflé, tile my bathroom, how to do a knit stitch or find Goethe’s “Faust”. I have watched documentaries that have opened my eyes to new experiences and ideas and allowed me to share other people’s experiences.  I have had conversations online with knitters in the UK and with an artist in Austin, Texas.  I like the idea that scientists and think tanks can collaborate with peers from all over the world online.

What I worry about is that all this media is just another form of ‘bread and circuses’.  For those who don’t know this term it came from ancient Rome at a time when there was a wide divide between the rich and the poor.  The empire that had been built on tributes and slave labor had expanded to it’s limits.  Slaves continued to take on most of the work in the empire leaving citizens with no jobs and little to do.  People were hungry, angry and idle and so to appease the people the officials of the time created jobs, subsidized housing and doled out grain.  More importantly they provided distractions for the disquieted public in the form of public holidays filled with entertainment of all sorts.  One political satirist of the time, Juvenal, accused the citizens of Rome of selling out for bribes of bread and circuses.  Are we too being distracted from what corrupt officials are doing in the name of our country?  Do we know what is really going into our water supplies, or what rights are being taken away, or what wars we are involved in and why? Do we as a society care?  Or is the latest tv show or football game far more important?

And what about all those connections we make online?  How real and meaningful are they?  Sure it can feel very satisfying to chat with someone online.  We can now find people who share whatever interest we may have and ‘chatting’ fulfills that part of us that yearns for human connection, but are they real and meaningful connections.  I’m sure the validity of such encounters can be argued for in a positive light but I find the lack of real life connections and friends being made at the click of a button to be rather disturbing.

Now I’m not saying we should return to a pre-tech world, but just for a minute imagine a small town a hundred years ago.  Now if a farm needed a new barn they would enlist the help of their neighbors to help raise the framed walls and in return the farmer would help his neighbors with their barns or other tasks.   Now I know people still help each other today.  A few years back I lived in the small town of Hawi, on the big island of Hawaii, when it was hit by a rather large earthquake.  Officials were frustrated because they were having a hard time coming up with an accurate count of the damage done.  People in the town were just not coming forward for the free disaster aid being offered.  Why? Because Hawi is a rather old traditional community and neighbors came together to help each other fix and repair the damage done.  But most communities are much more fragmented then they once were.  As people’s relationships take place more and more online what will they do when disaster strikes and they need real help?  Who can they call on?  How many of those ‘online’ friends will help out?

Like vehicles, media is a tool that must be used with forethought and care. It can be used to enlighten us or deceive us, to bring us together or divide us, to build our freedom or to conquer it. Please use responsibly.