What is the Searching Self
Some years ago I wrote a brief article on the searhing self. I'd been in a course in Cognitive Psychology working from the writings of Ulrich Neisser. What a rich body of literature. More on that later. In any case, I'm surprised that no one has picked up on the idea of how our identities are being shaped by all of the searching activities now part of everyday life. The practices of searching fit nicely into ideas about The Technological Self as articulated by many philosphers. (See Rafael Capurro--Information Technologies and Technologies of the Self; see http://icie.zkm.de and Rafael's own site).
Let's begin-- Think about how automobiles and related technologies (the highway system, fast food industry, and shopping malls) as technological artifacts have shaped our society. Now think about how our time and space are shaped by the computers we use. Think of how searching has shifted our engagement with computers, laptops, mobile phones, pdas. etc.
What does all this mean? More to come.....
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