(photo credit StarrGazr) I’m sleepless because I’m wondering how all the itinerant preachers in the 1740s relate to the new media community today. This time frame in America saw The Great Awakening as it’s sometimes called, where a bunch of preachers, among them the charismatic George Whitefield, came to preach with energy, fervor, and a social-landscape-leveling message that anybody and everybody could have a direct relationship with the Almighty. Given that the message most people were hearing in those sleepy Virginian colonial villages was that you had to go to the Anglican church, sit stock still and listen to dry, logical lectures, and that only the licensed clergy had the relationship with God, this must have been very disruptive.
And there it is.
The framing for my idea isn’t all there, but seeing as I can’t sleep, I’ll at least take a stab, and then hopefully, you’ll swoop into the comments and help me figure this out a bit.
Flow
Imagine a time where there’s really only one solid leader in a small community. News isn’t very forthcoming. Speculation and rumor abound, but there’s really only one conduit for law, direction, redemption, and everything else of great matter. Some in the community might have skills that surpass others, but the person directing the action is a standalone entity.
There’s a flow to this.
You wake up, do your chores, love your family, and toil along in the direction that the spiritual / religious / political leader points you. You’re a happy ant. You’re part of the functioning platform.
Disruption
So then what happens when the new, young, charismatic stranger from out of town shows up, with a great voice, ideas that make sense, and better still – STIR YOUR HEART? What then? You’re feeling confused, angry, cheated, and also a powerful draw to move in the direction of this person’s ideas. And it’s not just you obviously.
Everything is disrupted.
So what happens to the village?
Things can’t go back to the way they were, because the idea has taken root. It’s never going to be a quick restoration of old ways for the original leader of that village. His time is past, even while some in his village begin to cling harder to his ways. The schism is there, presuming the new preacher did the job with charisma, sense, and a language that the people can take and make their own.
Disruptions and Flow
Clearly, this cycles. This is how all things work. Computers show up and mainframes displace the old ways. Personal computers displace mainframes. Portable computers (and mobile phones) alter our relationship with personal computers. And so on.
Broadsides were replaced by newspapers. Radios attacked newspaper audiences. Television stole the advertising fire from radio. And the Internet has taken a swipe at all those media at once with its delivery methods.
Imagine every one of those situations as a well-run village under a traditional preacher, and imagine the next big change to be that fiery evangelist telling the commoner that they, too mattered, and that they would find a new relationship with something bigger and better than before.
Is that how you feel when you create a podcast or a blog post or a videoblog? The traditional preacher said only he had access to God, and then comes the new person who says, “Oh no. YOU can talk to God directly. It’s all yours. Have a ball.” Isn’t that your relationship with personal media? You can now talk to the universe out there.
When Every Stone Sings
Imagine the landscape of media, communication, and entertainment right now. We ALL have the printing press. We ALL have the television. We are all FOX, NBC, HBO, CNN. Every stone can sing. Does that mean the magic is diminished? And how can we choose the right stones to hear?
One billion channels. Is anything on?
The original audio promo for PodCamp Boston by Christopher S. Penn talked of many voices and the power of that. He was right – IS right.
And yet, there’s the issue of disruption and flow.
Why should you join voices? Who are the new old churches? Does joining with Podshow mean you’ve gathered your voice? Does contributing to one show to grow it into a powerhouse make more sense? Less? Picking the way you’ll interact, the voice you choose to modulate, the message you choose to convey seem like the heart of this post.
But disruption and flow ARE communication. A village is never one voice. It’s always many different stories woven into the larger sum. There are moments of focus and connection between people, but it’s rare that the organizing and gathering of voices to a common cause holds strong for a prolonged duration. Not without further mutation, division, unification, and so on.
Disruption and Flow are Breathing
Communities are disruption and flow. Communities are the destruction of held beliefs, the exploration of new beliefs, and the harmony of common ground. Only to be followed by the destruction of that common ground, an exodus towards the new beacon of representation.
Listening to a review of THUMBS, TOES, and TEARS and Other Traits that Make us Human, by Chip Walter, he said that humans’ creation of tools led to our bigger brains for communication. He said that once we learned how to manipulate objects in the physical world to serve our needs, we grew into needing ways to manipulate mental representation of objects= words.
In learning to regard the concepts of community and the forces that influence it, I hope to better understand how our new media aspirations and these tools we’ve acquired to communicate in different means and modes might further our experience and our shared relationships.
Your thoughts are valuable to me.