I live in a world that I find to be increasingly attenuated, distracted, fanned-out, disembodied. Growing up in the ’50s, I felt I was living in a very real place. The terms of human interchange were ones I could navigate. I could get an aura buzz from living. I can still get it, but it’s harder to find. More and more of the interchanges that are being forced on me as a member of contemporary society involve me having to deal with other people through various layers of scrim, which leaves me feeling disembodied.
Predictor: Birkerts, Sven
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 HarperÕs Magazine article, four experts on the impact of modern computing and telecommunications technology debate the effects of such technology on modern society. The article includes comments by Sven Birkerts, the author of “The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age,” published by Faber and Faber, an excerpt from which appeared in the May 1994 issue of Harper’s Magazine. Birkerts says: ”I live in a world that I find to be increasingly attenuated, distracted, fanned-out, disembodied. Growing up in the ’50s, I felt I was living in a very real place. The terms of human interchange were ones I could navigate. I could get an aura buzz from living. I can still get it, but it’s harder to find. More and more of the interchanges that are being forced on me as a member of contemporary society involve me having to deal with other people through various layers of scrim, which leaves me feeling disembodied.Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Harper's Magazine
Title, headline, chapter name: What Are We Doing On-line? A Debate on the Social Consequences of Online Communications
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 35 - 46
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne