Egocasting: The New Extreme Escapism

From Wired.com "We have moved beyond (broadcasting and) narrowcasting into ‘egocasting’ — a world where we exercise an unparalleled degree of control over what we watch and what we hear," writes Christine Rosen in The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society."

"Using TiVo, iPod and universal remote controls as examples, Rosen argues at some length that our passion for technologies that personalize our media experiences may lead to a perilous future where we refuse to engage with the world around us."

"Instead, insulated by our headphones and our La-Z-Boy recliners, we are willfully withdrawing from public spaces to wallow in a shallow, self-centered existence where we "consciously avoid ideas, sounds and images that we don’t agree with or don’t enjoy." And we’ve begun to prefer convenience to experience, half measures to full immersion."

"Rosen uses mainstream examples, but her logic could just as easily apply to sex. We can view paintings online instead of strolling through a museum. We can look at online porn or have cybersex without the mess or complications of actual lovemaking… "

"According to Rosen, we’re already succumbing to our desire for "constant, escapist fantasy" by favoring passive entertainment to active participation in society. We risk succumbing to a "vast cultural impatience" with anything that doesn’t fit neatly into our narrowly defined parameters."

"She concludes that egocasting, taken to the extreme, could result in our becoming dangerously disconnected from one another."

Read the full Wired article here.

Read Rosen’s New Atlanis piece here.