Week 4 - Sacred Communication in the Information Age

Regarding the Indigenous Australian concept of Dreaming, Stanner (1979) states that "a concept so impalpable and subtle naturally suffers badly by translation into our dry and abstract language" (p.23). Similarly, contemporary notions and expressions of sacredness tend to suffer from the conversion into digital information within the rational, commercial environment of online social networks. But there is, and must be, a place for sacredness within the framework of, for example, Facebook - because, as Stanner suggests, the drive to 'make sense' out of human experience (p.31) is a constitutional human trait, from which Facebook users of 2013 are not (at least not entirely) exempt.

Image - Link

Certainly it can be difficult to integrate authentic mythic or spiritual "content" into the Facebook framework, but the overwhelming urge to share the awe-inspiring experience of Life, and the pervasive, expansive nature of social networks which potentially allow more access to sharing than ever before, combine to produce a new and constantly evolving discourse of sacredness and spiritual meaning in this technological age.

Although, as McNeill (2012) suggests, "...the auto/biographical act of creating a Profile follows particular company guidelines and establishes community norms for participation" (p.104), it requires only a creative imagination to evade mundane responses to these standard questions. For example, one woman expresses eloquently under the category of Religious Views: Love in motion; a man lists his Political Views: Free Human; while yet another female friend works for Mother Earth (to master the art of embodying Love in the human form).

In her lecture, Ariella Van Luyn described the concept of humanism, coupled with the rise of science, as a significant contributor to the way the modern west views the world. She described it as way of thinking of the world as 'knowable' and measurable in a scientific way. There are, however, sub-cultures that exist within western society, fully capable of using and embracing technology, who do not consider the world in terms of being knowable, but rather are focused on the mysterious creative qualities of existence. There is extensive evidence of these sub-cultures in countless contributions to the Facebook network that differ from the conventional types of information offerings the site encourages - types of information offerings which are easily subjected to the aims of a commercial organisation.

References

McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto/biography. Biography 35(1), 101-118. University of Hawai'i Press.

Stanner W.E.H. (1997). White man got Dreaming: Essays 1938-1973. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University Press.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place, week 4 notes. [Podcast]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1244821-dt-content-rid-961754_1/courses/13-BA1002-CNS-INT-SP2/BA1002_4.3_Networked_Narratives_-_iPad_-_20130819_11.10.29AM.mp4

Images

Unknown artist. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202097057086805&set=a.4615049493114.2193338.1198877909&type=1&theater