Mobiquity: A Semiotic Analysis of Google Glass

Part Three of Three

This is the last of three posts (to view the first post, click here – to view the second post, click here) presenting a semiotic analysis of Google Glass and the ubiquity of mobile technology (Mobiquity).  Note: these posts have been edited and reformatted from a paper I wrote for my doctoral program at George Fox Seminary with Dr. Leonard Sweet.

Google’s Use of Metaphor

It is interesting to note that in the video, the main character, after he begins his day with a reminder of his anticipated virtual meeting that night with Jessica, journeys to buy a book in order to learn a new skill (to play the Ukulele) that he later uses to connect relationally and emotionally with her.  This is a metaphor for the video itself.  Through the video, Google Glass is portraying itself as a technology that, if learned and adopted, can help one connect with others in new and emotive ways.  Whether or not this promise is possible, it highlights the important, subtle and effective use of metaphor to communicate this reality.  As Geary argues “Though we encounter metaphor every day, we typically fail to recognize it.  Its influence is profound but takes place mostly outside our conscious awareness.  Yet once metaphor has us in its grasp, it never lets us go, and we can never forget it.”1

Google brilliantly does what the church needs to embrace.  The church needs to learn and sharpen its skills at communicating with metaphor as Jesus brilliantly did.  As Liu argues in Imagination First, the ability to employ and mix metaphors is an important part of the imagination process, allowing us to see things differently and explore the world in radically different ways.2   Google employs a metaphor to tell the story, evoking the imagination and by doing so, they open possibilities and allow the viewer to imagine what connections are possible if they adopted Google Glass mobile technology.

As the Church moves forward, it needs to re-adopt the use of metaphor in preaching and its discipleship methodologies.  Metaphors are pathways to the imagination3  and “A metaphor that rings true is more powerful than logic or a mathematical proof.”4   The re-embrace of the metaphor, particularly in preaching, would result in evoking imagination, increased reflection and application, as is the case with this viral video.

CONCLUSION

Mobiquity is upon us; we are “… now living in a world of information and communication abundance.”5   This abundance is having profound effects on us and between us.  As highlighted, the viral Google Glass video uniquely demonstrates many of the shifts we are seeing in culture as we move into a Secondary Orality.6   We are moving to a culture that increasingly embraces narrative and metaphor as ways of learning and reflection.  As a result, culture is shifting to new modes of learning and educating.  In addition, mobiquity is creating a culture that has never been simultaneously more connected and more alone.  These trends are brilliantly displayed in this viral video, highlighting so many of the cultural changes that are occurring.

As mobiquity continues to shift culture, these trends will not only continue, they will expand and evolve with increased public adoption and acceptance.  As we move into this new frontier of cultural change, the church will need to continue to change and shift its interface for interacting with culture in order to serve and speak into the changing world that God deeply loves.  Culture is constantly changing.  Consequently, the Church has the choice between two questions: Will it grievingly weep for the change the world is experiencing?  Or, will it weep over the world that is constantly changing?7   I hope the church and its leaders choose the second option and as a result, effectively love God and love others in the midst of mobiquity.

Footnotes
1  James Geary, I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), Kindle, 104.
2  Eric Liu and Scott Noppe-Brandon, Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), Kindle, 80.
3  Ibid.
4  Leonard Sweet, Real Church in a Social Network World: From Facebook to Face-to-Face Faith. Kindle. Location 1040.
5  Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, Abundance: The Future Is Better than You Think, Location 304.
6  Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Methuen, 1982).
7  This is based on Leonard Sweet’s challenge of whether, like Jesus at the Triumphant Entry, we are willing to weep over our Zip Codes (Postal Codes for Canadians).  

Mobiquity: A Semiotic Analysis of Google Glass

Part Two of Three

Connected but Alone

As many skeptics have pointed out, the protagonist in the Google Glass video is depicted as living alone, meeting a friend for a short meeting at a portable coffee shop and then having a virtual meeting with his female friend over a video connection.   Many have noted that the future being presented is lacking of human contact, demonstrating the proliferation of social technology to the place where one is more connected than ever and yet, also, more alone.1

This concept video brings into view the reality that people desire connections; this desire for connection is what has driven the proliferation of the Internet and Social Media technology.2   “The Internet may be a virtual community, but still it’s a community that’s readily available in a disconnected world.”3    As we move forward into a virtual world, there will be increased need for relational connection.  Dyrness points out  “In a world where we struggle not to “lose touch” with one another, Christ has given us this image of himself to hold on to, and by which we orient ourselves…”4   Technology offers Facebook, effectively and successfully providing connection, but people will increasingly desire Face-to-Face time (relationship).5   As the Google Glass video demonstrates, the protagonist is connected like never before, but the skeptics make a solid argument that he simultaneously seems alone.  In our increasingly connected but alone world, the church has an amazing opportunity to provide face-to-face community and relationship in a Facebook world.

Instant, Simultaneous and Constant Access to Information

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Google Glass video is the fact that it demonstrates how technology will increasingly make any and all information available on-demand visually (personal schedule, weather, web search), sometimes without prompting (example of the automated suspended subway services announcement in the video).  This evolution is simply another further step in information technology’s mobiquity.

In Steven Levy’s In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, Google cofounder Larry Page describes the future of search in similar terms: “It [Google] will be included in people’s brains. When you think about something you don’t know much about, you will automatically get the information.”6 

Google Glass’s emerging step in mobile technology announces the emergence of the next stage in evolution for mobile devices.  This next stage will radically effect how we learn.  Just as the calculator continues to change how we learn and teach math, the constant access to seemingly infinite information will change how we learn history, geography, literature, etc.7  The need to memorize dates, times, figures, etc. will increasingly become unnecessarily.  Even the skill of writing will continue change as texting and typing become increasingly dominant.8   With this seemingly limitless amount of information, it will become increasingly important to teach critical reflection and discernment skills to skillfully sift though the flood of information being fed on the Google Glass display.9  

This effect of technology will radically affect discipleship in the similar way it has education.  The traditional way of disciplining and evangelizing Christians (in fact, all religions over the last several hundred years) has been through education defined as the teaching of information.  “All religious evangelism is premised on the conviction that you can change people’s beliefs by educating them on the issues.”10   This shift in education is not coincidental to the discipleship crisis many see on the horizon.    In relation to the Church, this will have massive effects on the crumbling state of discipleship within North America and will spark a major shift in how we view and facilitate discipleship within the local church.

Interestingly, just as the Church had an instrumental role in the creation of higher education at the height of the Medieval Period, the church has the possibility to seize this opportunity and, once again, be on the cutting edge of education. Many see the state of discipleship as a major crisis; however, in the spirit of the book Abundance, it is also an amazing opportunity that could be fashioned by God for revival and renewal in the church that could, once again, be on the cutting edge of education.11