When I grow up I want to be an LCD projector

In regard to my experiences as a presenter at the social media conference, I thought it would be appropriate to comment on the use of media and the audience’s reaction to it. First off, I don’t think I have to point out the irony of a new media presentation at a social media conference where the audio fails to work, but it seems important to mention considering the audience’s reaction. As is usually the case when there is an LCD present in the room all eyes migrate over to stare vacantly at the screen regardless of the presence of an image or not. I noticed that everyone in the room watched the screen while I presented. This is nothing unusual or unexpected—people have always been irresistibly drawn to the pale blue glow of an LCD projector. What did surprise me, however, was the audience’s reaction to the sound not working in my presentation. Where people were content to stare vacantly at the images of Stephen and my abomination, they were transformed into irritated beasts the second that the sound failed to work. Eyes were rolled, watches where checked, and peopled looked genuinely angry at the lack of sound. I thought the shift from docile cattle to hostile mob interesting because there seemed so little cause for the change. It was almost as if people felt that they were getting cheated out of part of the media they were promised—even though they were content to simply “watch” only moments before. I find it hard to believe that they were discontent because they wanted to hang on every word that Stephen and I spoke during the presentation; rather, I think they were evidencing human nature by intensely desiring something that they could not achieve. It wasn’t that they wanted to hear Stephen and my message. Instead, they were upset at being told that (in a roundabout sort of way) that they could not hear our message and it was the point of being told “no” that upset them so much. After all, what is the point of all new technology other than to prove to someone that the unachievable is within our grasp? For that matter, what is the point of new media and cyborg theory apart from shaking one’s fist at God to say, “see, I can create, too!”? In the end, I think the illusion of created perfection was shattered when the sound failed to work properly during my presentation, which left the audience feeling a tad hollow. I often look back with regret and wistfully wish that Stephen had been there: then we could have acted out our parts in a “live” presentation and gotten into a real fistfight at the end. Oh well.