Have you ever stopped to think about just how dependent on the computer and digital media our lives have become? Think about it. Your day. Chances are that for nearly any time of any day it wouldn’t be a surprise to catch yourself staring into a computer screen, playing games or using apps on your smart phone, scrolling through music on your ipod, navigating the road with a GPS, or any number of these. You’re probably wondering why I’m even bringing these things up or what this has to do with reggae music at all, right? Well, in class this week, we’ve been discussing Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” a well-written article cautioning and exploring the affects of becoming such a deeply submersed and dependent web-based culture. It warns that perhaps our intelligence is becoming more scattered, our thinking more shallow and less profound. That our minds are developing into a sort-of schizophrenic system of operating, mirroring our information and entertainment source - the internet. Now, I’m not exactly sure this is something to be truly weary of or if it’s just the way the world goes, you know - everything changes. But therein lies the debate, and it is definitely something worth considering; something thats been in the back of my mind for a while now.
What are we giving up in return for this instant access of knowledge and media? A part of our own humanity perhaps?
The reggae band I profiled in my last post, SOJA, shares their perspective in a few of the songs on their newest album “Born in Babylon.” You might be thinking, why would a reggae band be singing about computers and the digital age? Don’t they usually just sing about chillin‘ out and getting high? Well perhaps a little, but, nearly all of SOJA’s songs are highly conscious, sharing significant thoughts and meditated perspectives on the way we as a society (especially those of us born in babylon) are living, and questioning perhaps how we should be living.
In their song, “Used To Matter,” lead singer/songwriter Jacob Hemphill shares his thoughts about living in such a digital age and implores his listeners to consider just how tangible (or intangible for that matter) these mediums are and to consider what things in this life truly do matter.
The second verse of the song starts, “See, my watch is worthless, so is my pen. And it seems nothing is greater than something that takes me way back when, to back when it used to matter.”
It seems the songwriter is contemplating the way in which all of our tangible mediums have become digitally intangible, and now the things that truly bring joy in life are those things that are tangible and real. Consider the way we use the internet nowadays; how much its become such an integral part of our everyday life. Like SOJA’s lyrics, Nicholas Carr writes in his article,
“The Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.”
Not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, but its essentially the concept of putting all your eggs into one basket. A fragile basket at that, made up of one’s and zeros. It leads one to question the sustainability of our knowledge and our culture, trusting our literature and written history to an ever-changing (not always accessible) digital mediums.
The verse continues, “All the words I write are on a screen, and the friends I have have ‘added’ me, and there’s no record of anything, and now we all cease to matter.” These lyrics poeticize exactly the idea that as we continue to trust our lives to machines, to this digital medium, we may be sacrificing our culture and humanity when there is no real record of anything we write down. Unlike a pen and paper, we need electricity and energy at the very least to recall anything written in a digital medium, so if these things aren’t accessible, can we truly say that what’s been “written” exists? Also, consider the threat of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or a solar EMP, both of which aren’t farfetched events. In a time where nearly every aspect of our life depends on computers, satellites, and digital technology, any major disruption to our electric power grid could mean devastation; all of our technological developments as we now know it will surely “cease to matter.”
“I just want us to be who we’re supposed to be, and who we are, doesn’t it seem like we’re kinda far from the original plan from the start, back when it used to matter,” Jacob implores his listeners in the final chorus of the song. With all these new technologies and conveniences that fill our lives today, have we lost something in the process - something real, something that truly matters. A way of life, perhaps? For me, this “original plan from the start” and idea of “back when it used to matter,” is best described by the Old Man from the Village of the Watermills in legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams(1990).
Yes, a way of life indeed. Sacrificing things that are truly good for a convoluted life of convenience. So wrapped up in the technological advancements of today, I often catch myself in thoughts much like Jacob probably had when he wrote the opening words, “See these days its different, its all new. The old is gone and I am too. Wishing I was closer to back when it used to matter.”
Aloha a Mālama Pono,
Messenjah
PS. Here are the lyrics to “Used to Matter.” Enjoy.
See, these days its different, Its all new
The old is gone and I am too
Wishing I was closer to
Back when it used to matter
All my coins are gone, its plastic now
My ipod's got me asking
"How could all my albums take me down
To back when it used to matter?"
Chorus
Now it seems that we
Are all wrapped up so tight,
light just can't get in
And I feel that we can't see
And I feel, its not "maybe"
See, my watch is worthless,
So is my pen
And it seems nothing is greater than
Something that takes me way back when,
To back when it used to matter
All the words I write are on a screen
And the friends I have
Have "added" me
And there's no record of anything
And now we all cease to matter
Chorus
So you die when you turn 22
But they gonna wait to bury you
'Cuz you got a 9 to 5 to do
And that's supposed to matter
So you replace your time in between
With other peoples' hope and dreams
And they live their lives on your TV
And now you don't even matter
Chorus
I just want us to be who we're supposed to be
And who we are, doesn't it seem like we're kinda far
From the original plan from the start
Back when it used to matter.
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