Teng Wei, a professor at China Normal University, talks about the "micro era"
Why are we increasingly inseparable from mobile phones?
Yangcheng Evening News reporter He Jing
On the afternoon of January 17, a lecture themed "Cultural Education in the Era of Digital Transformation" was held at the Guangdong Provincial Sun Yat-sen Library. The guest speaker is Teng Wei, director of the Microculture Research Center of South China Normal University and professor of the School of Liberal Arts. During the two-and-a-half-hour lecture, she won bursts of applause from the readers with her humorous language and easy-to-understand style.
Teng Wei believes that in the current era of digital transformation, the way knowledge is disseminated is changing, and the authority of previous knowledge is being challenged; people's lives are becoming mass-based, and individuals are not just consumers. At the same time, he is also a producer and can sell any resources he has; at the same time, the multiple selves brought about by the Internet also change interpersonal relationships. "If we can't even imagine ourselves, can we still imagine other homogeneous beings? Can we imagine families, communities, collectives, countries, and even the earth? Can humans still imagine a different future?"< /p>
●Everyone is involved in "micro culture"
WeChat, Weibo, micro business, micro video, micro sports, micro charity... At the beginning of the lecture, Teng Wei Let’s start from our own daily experience: Why are we increasingly inseparable from mobile phones? "People use smartphones as mobile Internet terminals for cultural consumption every day, and everyone is involved in microculture. There is no doubt that the micro era has arrived, and the trend of micro culture is unstoppable. In such an era, we Where will we go from here?" She said that thinking and exploring the "micro-era" is a theoretical response to the changes in the times as a humanities scholar.
The primary reason for entering the "micro era" is the rapid changes in digital technology and rapid software upgrades; secondly, people's pace of life is accelerating, and high housing prices and busy lives have put more and more people in a With no fixed place to live, people are increasingly relying on micro-storage to archive books and materials in electronic databases. In addition, in this era of information explosion, countless content providers are constantly pushing information, but precisely because there is too much content, the human brain can absorb less and less. This is the root of the emergence of "microculture".
In the lecture, Teng Wei mentioned the views of Michel Searle, a professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris and a tenured professor at Stanford University. In his monograph "The Thumb Generation", he pointed out that modern people's brain, sense of space, language, cognition and education methods have all been profoundly changed. Following the invention of writing 5,000 years ago and the development of European printing 500 years ago, After the promotion, mankind is experiencing the third symbolic revolution. He believes that we are experiencing a completely different history. "The age of knowledge is over, the age of experts is over, the century of performers is over, and the age of decision-makers is also over."
●Digital Transformation Four Major Impacts of the Era
What changes has the digital transformation era brought to society? Teng Wei analyzed it from four aspects.
What impressed her most was the change in the way knowledge is disseminated. "In the past, the dissemination of knowledge relied on authoritative people, such as resource libraries such as "Encyclopedia" and "English Dictionary". Only people close to the resources had channels to disseminate knowledge. But this is no longer the case. Anyone can Search the Internet for answers. In the past, students accepted whatever the teacher said, but today the teacher's authority is being challenged, because the teacher is no longer facing ignorant audiences, but mobile libraries and databases. Everyone can search for relevant content on their mobile phones, and the authority of teachers has collapsed. In this era, how should we be teachers? How should we be educators in front of children? ”
The mode of communication has changed, and knowledge is flowing in like sea water. "For example, you have been looking at your phone all morning and you feel like you have read a lot of content, but in the end you find that you have actually remembered nothing and half a day has passed. This is an era of excess information that is forgotten after reading. Everyone says that they What is spread is knowledge, and your public account is the most valuable, but very little is truly remembered.”
Secondly, people’s lives are becoming more generalized. Teng Wei said that pan-crowdization refers to the generalization of "crowdfunding" or "crowd-sharing", and now almost all industries are doing Internet+.
“You can drop by to deliver a courier to someone while you are running, make more while cooking and sell it to your neighbors, or tutor your children in composition at home, or provide consultation for studying abroad... As long as you have resources that can be sold, Just use Internet+ to democratize it. Your food, clothing, housing, and transportation may no longer be provided by commercial institutions, but may come from your neighbors. In this era of democratization, people are surrounded by strangers. ”
In addition, the era of digital transformation also allows people to have multiple selves. On different platforms, behind each ID corresponds to a different self. The literary girl who writes fresh poems on Douban, the buyer who maliciously gives negative reviews on Taobao, the skin care guru who posts beauty products on Moments... these completely different selves may all come from real life. Same person. "Everyone thinks that we are complete subjects and complete selves in front of others, but in fact, everyone is fragmented and shows different appearances in different places. Sometimes you may even lament that you are all trying to Without a complete self, how can we get to know each other? ”
This kind of multiple selves has brought about changes in interpersonal relationships. "In WeChat Moments, sometimes you feel as if you don't know this person. He is different from the person you know in real life." At the same time, everyone plays different roles in different groups. roles and identities, and this circle culture further deepens the self-division of individuals.
“If we can’t even define and imagine ourselves, can we still imagine other homosexual entities? For example, couple relationships, family relationships? Can we imagine families, communities, collectives, and countries? Or even the earth? Can humans still want to build a utopia about the future? Can humans still imagine a different future? "Teng Wei believes that this is a new social issue brought about by the digital transformation era, and it is also very important. and pressing issues.
●Behind the technological revolution is the pursuit of interests of capital
Teng Wei believes that in the era of digital transformation, educators must not only adapt to the times and adapt to digitalization, but also be vigilant and reflective . "All data resources today require energy support. If global energy is exhausted and all built databases cannot be opened, then it will be meaningless to talk about the data era. If there is no energy, how can we realize the digital future of mankind?"
All technological revolutions are driven by the pursuit of capital’s interests. In the era of digital transformation, Internet technology only brings the illusion of democracy. In reality, social rigidity is still becoming increasingly serious. The Internet is capitalizing everything. “Why can you earn a little money by delivering a package while running, pick up a customer while driving to work, or even cook a little more at home and deliver it to your neighbors?… Almost everything in people’s hands Resources are being integrated into the consumption process of capital, and all consumption behaviors are being profoundly virtualized. When facing the digital future, are you ever unwilling to be involved in the process of capital? Can we still exist in this world as living 'people' rather than as 'consumers'?"
In the era of digital transformation, more and more people are choosing the former between virtual reality and reality? , people have given up real interaction with the real world, and this is a problem that needs several generations to reflect on and face together.