Website crash, lost mobile, email account down?
This is when you learn about the modern relationship to technology.
Today in the 21st Century everyone is so reliant on technology that being without is unbearable. When the technology lets us down or meddling users interfere with its working, there is a feeling of loss.
But is it that modern? The objects we covet change during the decades. Each Christmas there are top toys for boys and girls linking that year to memory. Last year it was lead by movies Cars 2 and Transformers 3, plus the obligatory Justin Beiber singing doll. These trends place us in a time of fashion and technological advance. Go along to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London to be reminded.
According to D.W.Winnicott children all need things to help them through the years. Winnicott called them transitional objects. They are held on to and then discarded when the next transitional object comes into place. These objects carry children through the years of challenging development, as a constant source of comfort, and stability. The older child looks back at their transitional objects with remembering, and disbelief.
To synch products with development around a season in the depth of winter is a clever ploy. When was Christmas not related to products and selling? The marketing men have made sure that we are not aware of the gradual change so that it seems a natural.
Yet the pressure on parents and families to afford these products is immense. Peer pressure from school friends and other families to keep with the accumulation of products is pervasive, pushed on by the force of shame!
As adults this seems to continue. The stages of decades that adults go through are accompanied by the fashion objects of choice. Objects have become products. The intuition and manipulative intelligence of the marketing industry pushes these products towards us.
Perhaps if it were not technology, people would have to find something else to see them through the seasons. It used to be the rituals of the tribe, village, and town marking the changes of the seasons. The release of the latest of mobile is a ritual itself: not related to the seasons, but down to how fast the product can be developed and produced, and usually in time for the last quarter of the year before Christmas.
Website Crash
Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2012
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Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.