"Clip consciousness" is a term first used by American sociologist, philosopher and futurologist Alvin Toffler to refer to a person’s perception of bright and short images that regularly appear in news, on television, in newspapers, and in videos. The main feature of this type of thinking is that a person has to process a large amount of steep and completely heterogeneous information. And to process superficially, without making deep conclusions. Over time, this term became more widespread after the concept of “clip culture” appeared, and began to be considered as a component of the general information culture, based on the endless and uncontrolled flickering of information segments.
The concept
The prerequisites for the emergence of clip consciousness were initially discovered in the work of the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan "The Hubenberg Galaxy." In this 1962 book, he seeks answers to the questions: “Who is a man of print culture (he calls him the“ Gutenberg man ”)? How do the media affect human consciousness (at that time, it was primarily about the print media)? How does mass communication turn the whole world into a "global village"? ”
In particular, McLuhan wrote that at its present stage of development, society begins to transform into a global village, and with the development of electronic means of communication, human thinking returns to the pre-text era.
We can find the first mention of clip consciousness in Toffler in the book The Third Wave, published in 1980. In it, he distinguishes three main stages of the development of mankind: agrarian, industrial, and post-industrial. It is in this work that the philosopher first tries to formulate that this is “clip consciousness”. He describes this concept on a personal level, when each person is blinded and besieged by contradictory fragments, not belonging to the figurative row, which knock the soil out from under his feet, firing instant shots, devoid of any meaning separately.
History of the term in Russia
About clip consciousness, what it is in the modern world, in Russia they started talking in the 1990s. It was then that music videos began to appear on television in large numbers. Their plots, in fact, represented just such an unfinished image, the whole picture did not add up, and there was only a chain of fragments that were not connected in any way with respect to semantic load.
In our country, the first to use this term is the specialist in ecology and philosophical ontology Fedor Ivanovich Girenok. He called clip consciousness what replaced conceptual thinking in the modern world. It, according to him, by the 90s of the 20th century had completely outlived itself, having ceased to play a really important role.
Speaking of clip consciousness, Girenok noted the main trends that occurred in modern philosophy. The scientist emphasized that the world is replacing binary and linear thinking with non-linear. If European culture in its traditions is built on a system of evidence, then domestic culture, having Byzantine roots, is based on a display system. This is where the clip consciousness manifested itself among the Russians. He stated that in this way it replaced conceptual thinking.
Signs
It is worth noting that at first certain difficulties appeared when clips, video clips began to be actively broadcast on television, and information was presented in that vein. The perception of this format caused certain difficulties. But over time, the situation has changed dramatically. The brain of modern man began to get used to, began to develop the necessary perception.
Soon it was already possible to talk about the main signs of clip consciousness. These include the inability of the individual to work with large volumes of data, but at the same time, the ability to solve several problems at the same time is noted. In addition, such people manifest procrastination, fatigue, permanent arousal, difficulty concentrating, resulting in distracted attention, haste, exposure to extraneous influences, and increased suggestibility. People with clip thinking are able to possess superficial and unsystematic knowledge in various fields.
Minuses
This leads to the main shortcomings that are inevitably observed in a person with a similar perception of the world. He often comes to hasty conclusions, since this thinking requires quick processing of information and its perception, without implying thoughtfulness and concentration.
The disadvantages include a significant decrease in the ability to memorize. This is due to the fact that a person is forced to process in a short period of time many unrelated in meaning and various fragments. As a result, the brain utilizes outdated information with great speed, preparing to start processing new information. This leads to an increase in the volume of short-term memory, but the volume of long-term memory is constantly decreasing.
Finally, linguistic minimalism is inherent in people with such consciousness and thinking. Processing and perception of information should take place at high speed, as a result, the expression of thoughts takes on a compact and high-speed format. An example of this is the quoting of phrases from movies and cartoons, aphorisms, which a person saw on demotivators, pictures on social networks. Because of this, it is more difficult for him to formulate his ideas and thoughts, difficulties constantly arise with this.
pros
Perhaps the main plus of clip thinking is multitasking. A person has the opportunity to simultaneously control and perform several small tasks, sometimes completely different directions.
In addition, the reaction increases. This thinking allows you to instantly switch from one object to another, accelerating the process of perception. The result is increased orientation in unfamiliar environmental circumstances.
Finally, modern man is protected from information overload. His brain is being rebuilt not only for quick processing of information, but also for its utilization, which helps to avoid information overloads.
Criticism
All this leads to the fact that many criticize clip thinking itself and the use of this term. For example, a stereotype has appeared that it is inherent only to adolescents and youth, although this is fundamentally not so.
In his article, culturologist and philologist Konstantin Frumkin writes that this epithet most often determines the thinking of the younger generation, initially believing that this is bad. At the same time, he identifies several prerequisites for his appearance, one of which is to accelerate the pace of life along with an increasing information flow. This raises the problem of reducing and selecting information. Frumkin does not consider clip thinking to be a product of modernity, citing the fact that in America in the 19th century a standard of journalism called the “inverted pyramid” appeared. He just meant supplying information in such a way that everything becomes clear to a person after reading the heading and subheading. This is an analogue of this concept.
Among the critics of clip thinking are Russian writer and theologian Andrei Kuraev, who believes that it prevents a person from remaining integral. Its inconsistency is growing, which makes it less stable with each new inner contradiction. Some even call such thinking one of the main reasons for the decline of secondary education.
Features in children
In recent years, clip thinking of modern schoolchildren has undergone careful study. A significant part of educators considers this a truly global problem, the solution of which must be found as quickly as possible.
Speaking about the clip thinking of schoolchildren, researchers note the main features of the perception of minors. They consist in the fact that children are traditionally more difficult to express their thoughts, they do not want to analyze and read, memorize poems and write essays. Traditionally, the transfer of information to the student from the teacher was verbal and direct. Nowadays, clip consciousness as one of the characteristics of modern children puts the teacher in fundamentally different conditions. Now, in order to interest the child, he has to saturate the lesson with a variety of types of information. These can be images that are relevant to the topic, vivid presentations, catchy quotes and language.
On the one hand, the teacher is trying to adapt to the clip thinking of modern schoolchildren, and on the other, he is trying to develop conceptual thinking in them. This can be achieved by organizing a discussion on the topic of the lesson, special trainings, on which the student’s attention is focused on any one goal, task or subject. In this regard, parents are encouraged to encourage their child to express their opinion on a variety of topics as often as possible, as well as give children more attention, spending maximum free time with them.
How to get rid of this condition?
Of course, what is happening with modern society is one of the consequences of the development of information technology, it is a certain and inevitable stage of evolution. Therefore, it is senseless to fight the clip thinking of modern schoolchildren, and it is not necessary.
But you can give some advice to both adolescents and their parents in order to improve learning, learn how to spend more time on useful and really necessary information. You should definitely protect yourself from the so-called informational garbage.
To do this, there are several recommendations that will help the clip consciousness of young people to better cope with all this stream of information that falls on each of us daily. So it is recommended to stop closely following the news, in which there are too many minor events and outright negativity. It’s useful to unsubscribe from social networks. It will be very difficult, so you can start by abandoning one or two social networks that you use the least, but still spend time on them.
Instead of e-books, start reading paper, as an alternative, you can start listening to audio books. It is proved that in this case the information will be absorbed better, at least by a quarter. Arrange for yourself one or two days a week in which you absolutely refuse gadgets, as far as possible.
Maintaining efficiency
In the modern era, it will be important to maintain the effectiveness of your thinking. It is worth recognizing that the psychology of this phenomenon has not been fully disclosed, since the term appeared relatively recently. Therefore, the main characteristics of clip consciousness at the motivational level are not yet fully understood. To stay focused on your own tasks and goals in such conditions, it is enough to follow simple and effective recommendations. They were assembled by the Italian psychologist Palladino, setting forth in his book "Maximum concentration. How to maintain efficiency in the era of clip thinking."
Always remember that with every distraction from the news feed or your smartphone, you should immediately begin to observe yourself as if from the outside, asking a simple question: what am I not doing now? This helps to avoid wasting time, to realize their own anxiety about this.
It is necessary to fight against procrastination intensely, to develop self-confidence, as well as emotional intelligence. After all, another drawback of clip thinking is that a person has a limited and frankly meager amount of emotions that he sorely lacks to express the full gamut of his feelings. Finally, it is necessary to educate spirituality in your children and yourself, instilling values ​​that are timeless .
Breathing meditation
Interestingly, some researchers even propose the use of special breathing meditations that will help develop conceptual thinking as opposed to clip thinking. It is no secret that our restless mind is the source of most of the problems that exist in the modern world. When everything around is aimed solely at further stimulating it, it is necessary to manually translate thoughts into a calm state.
Effective in this sense can be meditation. Meanwhile, many are frankly afraid of it, although it seems that there is nothing easier than to sit for ten minutes in the morning and evening in silence and with a straight spine. After all, having spent so little time putting your thoughts in order, you will improve the state of your nervous system. Those who practice such practices note that some kind of elusive, but obvious support appears inside, because of which the whole day develops in a completely different way, more fully and consciously.
Often, meditation itself means relaxation itself. Most training pursues this very goal. Perhaps the most famous and accessible of them is breathing meditation. This does not require any special exercises, you only need to carefully calculate your own respiratory cycle. Inhale and exhale with a slight stretching of the latter, which helps to focus more meaningfully on this process. Be sure you will feel noticeable relief in a minute.
Indeed, truly effective meditation is not only relaxation, it is often not the main thing. It is also an intense internal work that helps to open new horizons for your personality. At home, it is recommended that you organize a day of silence at all, in which you refuse to use the Internet and even communicate with others. If it’s problematic to devote yourself all day, organize at least a few of these hours. At this time, simple physical work, cleaning the house, improving the territory, do your hobby, your favorite thing.