RE:IJSNC, Issue 1, Volume 2, May 2012 - Ocean Seminary College

great alienation with regard to the environment.
Into this disconnect rushes a multi-billion advertising
industry with the resources to “sell” emotions
with little or no conscience and few limitations
about how this is done. While Jonathan Ive and
others carefully consider the ergonomic appeal and
emotional connection with their products, not
much is voiced in the literature about the greater
societal effect or impact they are having, and if it is
voiced, who is listening and acting on it? Even
more relevant now than when they were published
are the words: “If ecological wisdom cannot be
made as engaging as the reshaping of continents,
the harvesting of the seas, the exploration of space,
if it cannot compete with the material gratifications
of industrial growth, it will run a poor second to
those who appeal to stronger emotions” (Roszak,
2001, p. 38).
My stepdaughter joyfully emerging, soaked and
happy from jumping over waves with her iPod in
hand is a triumph for the industry. The kids did
not forget about their mechanical objects in the
waves—they held them up, used them to take pictures,
protected them from the salt water, and still
managed to consult their text messages. The industry,
unlike us, (the family, the community, the
lawmakers), has given these kids a clear path to
follow, one with immediate rewards. We’ve given
them a muddle about what is wrong, mixed with
fearful thinking, and no good strategies that will
have enough impact.
These girls are average in many ways, typical of
most girls in the country, from broken homes, under
the spell of the media, and living with overworked
or otherwise overwhelmed parents who are
as inclined to rely on social media and entertainment
to tune out the pain of economic life and
broken relationships. Most parents don’t have the
time or energy it takes to sift through the flood of
information, sort it out, and present clear paths for
kids to follow in order to effect change. Parents
are as isolated as the children are, and the ones
who do attempt to make an effort are often met by
resistant kids already tethered to the rewards of the
device.
15
Vogel: Ecofeminist Reflections
Grounding the Issue in Reality
The girls dread the imminent beginning of the school
year, and try to cram in as many online TV serials as
they can before their free time is taken up by homework.
They are comforted by this—it takes them
away from the painful realities of life, of how we are
in fact, not coping, not solving and not providing a
future for them that we owe to them. No wonder
they seem angry at us. More than just neurotransmitters
being attuned to constant media stimulation,
they know on some level that we have failed to protect
them from the creations that are gobbling up
their lives. That we then try to persuade them to do
better than we have done launches them into cynicism
and fosters apathy. I’m left with the same, abiding
question: how do I assist in a shift of perception,
while not undermining areas where my stepdaughter
feels competence, achievement, and belonging? How
do I describe a problem that she and others are not
poised to accept exists?
What I come to at the end of researching this article
is not some hoped-for solution. As the girls sleep
in the back of the RV, exhausted from a long day of
driving through Portland and Seattle traffic, we maneuver
onto the ferry and then home. A great sadness
overcomes me as I attempt to hold the complexity
and suffering that we seem to be bound to,
and as I realize the great darkness of the times that
have overcome us. The screen hooked to the Internet
looks like light, it looks like hope. It is luminous,
like Lucifer, the brightest angel of God. It glows
back at me as I type words across its face, and I depend
on it, even for this article. It offers me access
to everything I want to know—a way to find the
world, the research, the connections, and a way to
endlessly dive through electromagnetic channels and
into mysteriously distracting other worlds. Would I
want to live without this technology? Could I live
without the ease of the Internet, now, remembering
all those awkward 3 X 5 cards, writing by hand, and
then typing on clunky typewriters? Yes, I could live,
but no, I would not want that.
What I want is wisdom and support, and I don’t
want to be the only one carrying this wisdom, the
only one setting limits. I don’t want to run in terror
from it, and I also don’t want to be enslaved by its
constant appetites. I sense that there is a way to be