Sir, – In response to Bernard Stiegler (Unthinkable, December 7th), his view that today “social media dominates our relations to the other... and computational processes interrupt my relations to myself” prompts two reflections.
Oswald Spengler (in The Decline of the West) held that writing – that ancestor of computation – already changed man’s consciousness and thereby his relation to himself, since it is infinitely more abstract than hearing and speaking. Is it not the case that social media is now adding a further and dangerous layer to this abstractness and its complexity? And could this explain why so many people tweet messages that are utterly offensive and often need to be withdrawn – at great cost to themselves – messages that otherwise would never have been sent?
Besides, since “every reader reads himself” (in Marcel Proust’s words), is the “massive entropy” of our age, as reflected in the computer/smartphone, actually blinding the user to the self-awareness that might have prevented the rash or offensive message ever being sent?
– Yours, etc,
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DESMOND SWAN,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.