Ontology of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This project began from a place of questioning, a curiosity around the extension of myself into and onto my device, my smartphone. Originally a short auto-ethnographic piece with many unanswered questions, I have since talked with others about their feelings around living with this crucial extension. I began to ask about their life histories of device usage, because I wanted to understand the initial extension into the device. What is an arm without a keyboard, what is a hand without a phone, does your back pocket feel lonely without its little friend and do you feel lonely without the extension of yourself? I don't wish to sound like your typical technology critic; yet I want to understand the environment as it has been shaped by technology and I want to question the effects and affects of that environment on its subjects. What does it mean to be and how does one exist in this environment? In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Marshall McLuhan cites medical research by Hans Selye and Adolphe Jonas stating that all extensions of the self are attempts at maintaining equilibrium; what is the illness or unbalance that encourages modern man to extend themselves into the device? I do not intend to be critical of any one person yet to understand the general unbalance that is felt by all and the equilibrium that is offered by the extension of ourselves onto the device.