Michael Wesch: How the Internet has changed us

Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun 

Michael Wesch: How the Internet has changed us

Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. He spoke to a group at the Playhouse Theatre on Friday, October 25, 2013.

Jenelle Schneider / Vancouver Sun

If you’ve ever slowed down long enough to wonder about the effect of our increasing immersion in the world of social media and digital technology, Michael Wesch is the person to ask.

He has been called “the explainer” by Wired magazine, he has won that publication’s Rave Award, the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology and numerous other distinctions.

But for students in his class at Kansas State University, where he is an associate professor of cultural anthropology and digital ethnography and holds the Coffman Chair for University Distinguished Teaching Scholars, Wesch’s biggest impact has been in teaching them to be not just knowledgeable, but what he describes as “knowledge-able.”

At a time when Facebook often wins over professors in the battle for students’ attention, Wesch not only engages students in learning but he gets them to create and share their learning through video projects viewed by millions of people online.

Wesch was in Vancouver recently to speak to Vancouver Community College faculty and staff.

In a wide-ranging interview, Wesch talked about his research, which has taken him from the almost media-free rainforest of Papua New Guinea, to the media-immersion that more aptly describes our lives today. Here is an edited version of the interview:

Q You have worked with a remote indigenous culture in New Guinea, where the only media was reading and writing. How does that experience relate to the impact of digital media on global society?

A When a new medium becomes foundational in a society, it really does shake things up very profoundly and I think it would be a little naive to say that we have a choice in the matter. Just like my friends in New Guinea, there will be ways in which our culture and lives will transform in ways we do not like and don’t intend.

Q In a recent story on technology and incivility, I asked people if technology is making us uncivil. Is it technology or is it us?

A Technologies become like frozen intentions. The way these things are used and how they become part of our lives is at least partially out of our control and in that sense it’s not totally irrational to think of them as something other than just a tool. That’s the key that came to me in New Guinea. These media shape what can be said, how it can be said, who can say it, who can hear it, whether or not these messages will survive for sometime, how they will be accessed later. These are the fundamental questions of our time and they shape not just how information flows but also what counts as knowledge or what’s going to be valued in our culture.

Q We are immersed in new media, we think we control it. Do we?

A Let’s take a real concrete example: You’re on Facebook, you can post things on Facebook and the moment you post a very complex algorithm starts kicking in to decide exactly who is going to see what you just posted. In the real world I can control who hears me based on how loud I shout or that type of thing. There’s no algorithm controlling who’s going to hear what I say. That algorithm is biased in different ways and ultimately shapes our conversations and will in some ways shape our culture.

Q So while the Internet connects us with the world, our world view is narrowing?

A Yes, these algorithms — to me that’s the most interesting aspect of digital life right now. The reality is that a whole flurry of algorithms are shaping our lives right now. They shape what movies we watch, they shape what movies get made, they shape our economy — over 70 per cent of all trades on Wall Street are done by algorithm. Facebook and YouTube, these are the largest public spaces possibly ever created and they are controlled by companies. There are some elements to be concerned about, especially given that there’s got to be a profit motive somewhere in there as well. I’m not a raving Marxist or anything but I do think it’s important to be aware of how these things shape our conversations.

Q Is it possible to opt out?

A A friend of mine, his daughter just turned 12 and it’s this pressing issue. she wants a smartphone. He said, ‘No, you’re not getting a smartphone.’ And she said, ‘You’re ruining my life. My whole social life happens through this medium. You are making me an outcast.’ And that’s true. So, can you opt out? In many ways no.

Q What about new media and our youth today?


Q If you could leave today’s educators with a single piece of advice, what is it?

A We live in an age of almost infinite information and learning opportunity and so the key here is we have to inspire people to have a sense of wonder and curiosity and if we do that, they have what is essentially the world’s largest knowledge machine at their fingertips. If we fail at that they have the world’s largest distraction device.



