A BBC documentary series by Adam Curtis. More about it from Wikipedia.
I have embedded all the files here in the blog but in case you have a problem watching or prefer the option to watch it in full-screen, I have also uploaded it to my server, where you can download it as a Quicktime video.
Part I:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=404227395387111085Part II:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7821420150917834375
Part III:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4486343328817737043And now, discuss: Why do you think I have found this video relevant to our discussion of new media? What kind of lessons / ideas did you draw from it that might extend our discussion?
Possibly Relevant Posts:
- Would the Numbers Game Still Exist: The Trap’s Adam Curtis Afraid of Statistics (5) | Lauren Marie
- Trapped- Mental Illness and Computers (4) | Franklin
- The Trap and The Great Depression (1) | Alison
9 Comments
In the trap, Adam Curtis included footage of R.D. Laing asking “Is love Possible? Is freedom Possible? Is the truth Possible? Is it possible to be one’s actual self with another human being? Is it possible to be a human being anymore? Is it possible to be a person? Do persons even exist?” These questions speak to the idea of what defines personhood. Adam Curtis disagrees with the negative and paranoid vision of people utilized by game theory and Laing’s theories about familial interaction. Digital technologies can provide a back drop for discussions of what it means to be a person. The one that came to my mind first is the argument about the dualistic nature of people. Plato argues in Phaedo and the idea is expanded upon by Decartes (who could forget “I think, therefore I am) that our bodies and minds are two separate entities. With the advent of media technologies our physical body becomes a less essential piece to human interaction; we can almost separate body and soul. That is if you believe the soul exists. I think this is a really interesting dynamic in mediation of any kind—the divorce of the body from self.
The most important aspect of this documentary to our discussion on new media is the focus on human interaction. Because we are in an era where human interaction is becoming increasingly more virtual, this documentary gives us some perspective of past theories on human interaction that can allow us to begin studying how these forms of interaction have changed. While also giving us some ideas of what might have and have not worked in previous tests of human interaction. Has this changed? Or does new media allow for some interactions that were previously detrimental to now become usable? What kind of game are we playing now that we can become anyone we want to as long as we are hidden behind our screens?
The advent of social media and the rate at which online interactions take place between people all over the world, has caused huge opportunities for dialog. People now have access to their government, medical information, and so many other sources of ‘power’ in ways that were unthought of before this. They can challenge this power, demand answers, gather to bring change in their own lives, and be heard.
I think that it is inherent in human nature to experiment with different ways of being, try it out, if it fails, move on. We all learn like this – through our mistakes. I don’t want to belittle human experience by calling huge upheavals in populations and revolutions mere ‘mistakes’, but this documentary shows very well how much people want to adopt some sort of idealistic viewpoint and see how it goes. At the very least it’ll be a change from the thing we were doing before, at worst, it’ll fail and something else will present itself. I might be making this sound way more simplistic than it is, but that’s how I feel. That’s how it’s been in my life too – I believe things, think things, want things. And then I learn other things or learn that what I believe isn’t something that works, and I find other things. We are constantly trying to find some sort of balance.
And I have to say, my personal journey has very much been affected by my online social network and the digital world. I am able to get different viewpoints, talk to people with experiences different from mine, and I am able to grow and better understand the world around me. And sometimes understand it less. But it’s an experience I would not give up – the ‘freedom’ I feel to be able to access such information is priceless!
I wanted to add: while I like the basic content of this documentary, I have to say that it skipped over a lot of stuff. Content-wise, it provides a sweeping view of over 60 years of the world’s history.
Also, it was annoying that many of the collages were repeated over and over through all three parts – the dialog was interesting, but the images sometimes had nothing to do with what was being said.
It does, however, do a decent job of making one think =)
Adam Curtis’s documentary The Trap is so relevant because it provides insight about the paradigms and principles that shape our society. These paradigms manifest themselves through institutional policies that permeate our lives. They effect the media and our perceptions of self and the world around us. That being said, I was unclear of the extent to which our society is obsessed with numbers. A unifying theme in The Trap seems to be how the men behind the scenes continue to find [inadequate] ways of quantifying the unquantifiable. This is clearly detrimental to much of the public sector, such as education policy.
Curtis gives a very selective and one sided view of recent history, highlighting institutional blunders such as the Rosenhan Experiment and the modeling of society based on a theory from a paranoid schizophrenic. Even though the documentary conveniently ignores counterpoints, the factual data presented is disturbing and rather disappointing.
This documentary followed a common template seen in blogging and “opinionated journalism.” While I wish it was more three dimensional, I found it to be quite thought provoking and rather creepy. I see media and communication studies as the ultimate interdisciplinary field, and everything from history to philosophy and physics influence its plight. The Trap is a successful representation of this truth.
The Trap keeps returning to the concept of freedom. Curtis attempts to offer us “an alternative idea of freedom — the dream of not only changing the world, but also, transforming people… it offers hope and meaning in the way that our narrow version of freedom was deliberately designed to exlude.”
I would be curious to know what Curtis thinks about freedom as it’s related to the internet – the internet has definitely changed the world, but I think at this point, we’re grappling with question of whether it’s changed it for the better or worse. Many believe that the new media has extended our rights, especially our freedom of speech. With the rise of blogs and easily accessible creative tools, it has empowered the masses and has created new pathways to dialogue.
But at the same time, we are now “slaves to the screen.” It seems like it’s impossible for modern humans to go “off the grid.” The more we participate in the online world, the more information is tracked and stored on us (Google AdWords/AdSense etc.) All of this data can be used to analyze consumers and assist in the attempt to control us even more. This may seem like a cynical view, but I think that when we talk about the new opportunities new media has given us, it’s important to also remember the power the it now has over us.
While viewing The Trap, I thought that Curtis’ simplification of humans as machines and their ability to be controlled by numbers is a reflection (and possibly a result) of our technology-saturated society. People want instantaneous results in every aspect of life because of tools like Google and Wikipedia, and gadgets like Kindle and iPod, which allow us to receive information with the push of a button. I mentioned in my blog post that people with mental illnesses (or those who believe they might have one) are more likely to ask for drug treatments rather than therapy, because pills offer us a quicker fix and don’t require us to alter our schedules. However, they also lead to us thinking that we need pills in order to feel “normal,” when in many cases (although not all) bouts of sadness and anxiety can be more permanently managed through human interaction in the form of therapy
The Trap talks about how throughout history we have tried to think of human beings as numbers, whether through game theory, quotas to fill, or a diagnostic checklist. The internet makes this kind of thinking even easier. Data is easier to both gather and analyze. Through gathering our usage data, it puts us into little boxes of consumers. For example, Facebook knew that I was moving to New York before I changed my network, and Gmail knows that I’m looking for a nannying job. I fit a set of criteria and am treated as such. My behavior is no longer mine, but an advertising checklist. With the growth of new media, opportunities to define people as virtual concepts, instead of as complex individuals, will increase.
Sticking to the thesis of my reaction-post to The Trap, I think the documentary shows how Game Theory can essentially characterize the predominant mode of our society (its thinking, its negotiation of facts, its subjectivity to the rest of the world.) IMHO, it will be (perhaps already is) the fetishization of data that dominates our policy, our lifestyles, our politics. The rise of digital technologies makes this quest for data acquisition possible, and we’re just beginning to see how it has entered both the public and private sphere. Take for instance the practice of re-nonymizing data– now the mashing-up of mere datasets have the ability to create a complete (although never unbiased) pictures of any given moment in human history. Such practices have, and will have, immense effects on the way we conceptualize history, and the present.
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