Hauntology

I find the theories suggested by Douglas Rushkoff to be extremely interesting and highly relevant to the way in which media and technology are changing our experience of time. As stated on Rushkoff.com, 'Rushkoff argues that we no longer have a sense of a future, of goals, of direction at all. We have a completely new relationship to time; we live in an always-on "now", where the priorities of this moment seem to be everything' (Rushkoff 2013). I do find myself siding with Rushkoff in many regards. Recently I have been discouraged by the amount of emphasis in our culture to live within this Facebook, Twitter immediacy, the fact that every moment needs to be immediately uploaded or shared within a platform to make it tangible is, I feel, along the lines of what Rushkoff is saying. However, I found recently the idea of living within the present takes away from the future to be turned on itself. I discovered an example of someone momentarily living in the future to heighten their sense of the present, or now. 

Recently, a friend and I went to see a performance by the London Heritage Orchestra at the Opera House. They were playing Vangelis' much acclaimed soundtrack to the popular eighties sci-fi film, Blade Runner. My friend and I are adoring fans of the film, soundtrack, and everything associated and had been looking forward to the event for sometime. It is not the looking forward to the event where I find the aspect of living in the future to still be present, but rather, something my friend said to me prior to the performance. He turned to me and asked if I was planning to record any portion of the performance on my iPhone (for Facebook or future reference purposes) to which I replied that I hadn't even thought about it. He went on to say that lately he had been tired of what technology had been doing to his experiences. That he was tired of watching a shaky, hand held recording of something after the event and having that experience take away from the memory of the actual event. We both agreed not to film any of the performance. What my friend did was live momentarily in the future to heighten his sense of the present, or now. He, without knowing, foresaw a combination of what Rushkoff describes as Digiphrenia and Overwinding, trying to relive an entire concert, through technology and having that technology alter his experience. 

It was this conscious act and ability to see how technology can alter his memory and perceptions in a future context, that made me think there are two sides to Rushkoff's argument. It is possible to utilise the future to live more peacefully in the now. 

Rushkoff, D 2013, 'Present Shock', Rushkoff, accessed 23rd May 2013 <http://www.rushkoff.com/present-shock/>