I don't buy the argument about why the populations of the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland are less affected. As regards the embedding of code in the society, the Netherlands in particular contributed substantially to the field of computer science since the beginning of the field. Software is as deeply embedded there as anywhere in the Anglosphere, and probably even moreso than English speaking countries like Canada or New Zealand that are commodity driven economies. The average Dutchie will speak English as well as anyone in the Anglosphere. The disparity is probably due to other structural factor in those societies offsetting the discomfort of the digital reversal
Yes, this discrepancy puzzles me. Plausible explanations I can see:
1. The alphabet effect alienates anyway, and the more "alphabetic" culture and mind are, the harder the digital reversal hits them. It’s not just about happiness vs. anxiety but the whole set of digital reversals, from epistemological to gender ones. This is common for the West in general: the West is affected by the digital reversal much more than other parts of the world that have preserved strong residual orality and analog/ecological thinking to various degrees.
2. Media effects are not linear; they are compounding. In addition to the alphabetic effect of alienation, the Anglosphere might also suffer from TV commercialization, which eroded communal unity, replacing it with "demographics" suitable for commercial targeting. TV, the ad industry, and pop culture were developed in the Anglosphere the most, in no small part due to the linguistic size of the market and being the center of respective innovations.
3. The Northern European cultures, being highly literate and susceptible to the alphabet effect, nevertheless preserved locality and communal forms of public self-perception, which had to mitigate the alienating effect of the alphabet to a significant degree.
Anyway, I see this issue and keep thinking about how to squeeze it to fit into the theory, otherwise beautiful and compelling.
I don't buy the argument about why the populations of the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland are less affected. As regards the embedding of code in the society, the Netherlands in particular contributed substantially to the field of computer science since the beginning of the field. Software is as deeply embedded there as anywhere in the Anglosphere, and probably even moreso than English speaking countries like Canada or New Zealand that are commodity driven economies. The average Dutchie will speak English as well as anyone in the Anglosphere. The disparity is probably due to other structural factor in those societies offsetting the discomfort of the digital reversal
Yes, this discrepancy puzzles me. Plausible explanations I can see:
1. The alphabet effect alienates anyway, and the more "alphabetic" culture and mind are, the harder the digital reversal hits them. It’s not just about happiness vs. anxiety but the whole set of digital reversals, from epistemological to gender ones. This is common for the West in general: the West is affected by the digital reversal much more than other parts of the world that have preserved strong residual orality and analog/ecological thinking to various degrees.
2. Media effects are not linear; they are compounding. In addition to the alphabetic effect of alienation, the Anglosphere might also suffer from TV commercialization, which eroded communal unity, replacing it with "demographics" suitable for commercial targeting. TV, the ad industry, and pop culture were developed in the Anglosphere the most, in no small part due to the linguistic size of the market and being the center of respective innovations.
3. The Northern European cultures, being highly literate and susceptible to the alphabet effect, nevertheless preserved locality and communal forms of public self-perception, which had to mitigate the alienating effect of the alphabet to a significant degree.
Anyway, I see this issue and keep thinking about how to squeeze it to fit into the theory, otherwise beautiful and compelling.