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Philosophical Thought
Reference:

The screen as a determinant of time acceleration

Grigoryev Sergey Leonidovich

ORCID: 0000-0001-9143-0636

PhD in Philosophy

Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy, Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev

127434, Russia, Moscow, ul. Timiryazevskaya, 49

grigoryevdiss@gmail.com

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8728.2023.7.43516

EDN:

SCJFRA

Received:

02-07-2023


Published:

09-07-2023


Abstract: The subject of the study is the current trend of accelerating cultural dynamics, as well as the real reason for the emergence of a subjective sense of acceleration of socio–cultural time - the acceleration of the pace of STP and the diversity of the technosphere surrounding the individual. Another such reason is the overuse of information. The classical model of time, which assumes that all possible changes in the continuously moving world are interconnected in space and time, is partially deformed, partially annulled in the conditions of modern information culture. The process of revising classical models of time perception in combination with its individualization was initiated by the philosophical trends of existentialism and postmodernism. The research is based on the concept of digital capitalism by J. Weissman, is a purposeful consideration and comprehensive analysis of a number of new views on the phenomenon of the screen, as well as on the features of structuring and representation for the recipient of his internal virtual space, which have a direct impact on perception, resulting in the appearance of the effect of subjectively perceived acceleration of time. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the nature of the interactions formed between the screen and the viewer (user, viewer, gamer, etc.). The existence of a modern person is increasingly becoming a simulation, and the time of existence is commercialized and becomes the subject of symbolic exchange and consumption. According to the results of the study, the most noticeable features of the formed interactions, their imitative and simulation nature, forcibly modeling the effect of time acceleration are identified and analyzed. The screen of an electronic device (smartphone, tablet, TV) located next to a person in the conditions of a network society forms a new type of intersubjectivity, within which it acquires many functions, the number of which is constantly growing. In conclusion, the author's philosophical interpretation of the problem of screen-human interaction is presented, based on the concept of J. Weissman, the analysis of modern cultural trends of acceleration and deceleration is carried out, the general socio-cultural prospects of these processes are evaluated.


Keywords:

screen culture, sacralizing the screen, socio-cultural acceleration, social models of time, existential time, time as an experience, overuse of information, boost, socio-cultural dynamics, screen quality

This article is automatically translated.

Introduction

The philosophical thesis of Heraclitus that the world is in constant motion and change offers a form for the first traditional model of the worldview, within which space and time are inextricably linked by the very nature of this dynamics, since all possible changes in the continuously moving world are interconnected in space and time. Eleven centuries of medieval scholasticism have hardly supplemented or expanded this statement, but in the philosophy of Modern times such innovations, based on the initially conventional nature of the designated concepts, inevitably followed. So, already in the second half of the XVIII century, I. Kant, answering the question "what can I know about the world?" and exploring space and time already as categories with which human thinking operates, reflecting the surrounding reality, he comes to the conclusion about the immanent a prioriism inherent in thinking, which largely underlies the dichotomy of the transcendent and the transcendental proposed by him, since, according to the conclusions to which he came, both space and time are nothing else, as a priori constructions of logical consciousness [13, p. 9].

The followers of Kant, who further comprehensively developed this idea, made a lot of efforts to isolate and then demarcate the objective-logical and subjective-symbolic content of these concepts. In this respect, for example, classical rationalist philosophy was eventually forced to dissociate itself from world artistic culture, since each side saw something inherently inherent in space and time, and the logic of thinking and language does not have the ability to operate with imagery alone. So, a speech filled with metaphors, for example, is very appropriate on stage, but absolutely impossible in scientific discourse. Therefore, the brilliant "And a day lasts longer than a century" cannot be proved and justified by any rules of logical inference – it's just that the poet feels time like that, which he shares with his reader.

Only postmodernism could put an end to all this discord, declaring in the second half of the XX century the "crisis", the "end", the "sunset" of all metanarrations. according to the new realities, the postmodern concept of time was formed outside the traditionally directed vector from the past to the future. This state of affairs led to the dechronologization of time, the abolition of the declared invalid metanarrations in the formalized sequences of events historically associated with them.

However, before the postmodern, there was a philosophical trend expressing doubts about the inviolability of the Kantian concept of time – existentialism. Its formation takes place under the sign of a time that is lived and experienced exclusively individually [12]. If Kant's time is a priori, and therefore logical, then the time of existence is just as a priori teleological. This refers to the time of realization of personal goals and values, the achievement of which only forms a personal perception of the time of the outside world, assumed by the subject to be outside of himself. This cannot be metanarration by definition, and thus cannot be annulled by postmodernity. Moreover, such a model of the subject's perception of "external time" makes it possible to explain why for some it flows faster (there are achievable goals), and for others it is slower (there are no goals, existence becomes meaningless).

The diversity of the technosphere surrounding modern man is such that he definitely does not have time for this speed of technological progress. For this reason, there is an assumption that the passage of time has accelerated in comparison with all its classical models. Moreover, for the purpose of argumentation of these subjective conjectures, the parties asserting in this way are given more and more new and, as it seems important to them, more and more significant evidence. The latter inevitably become overgrown with the most diverse predication – signs that testify exactly this way, "signs of accelerated time", the lion's share of which are determinants of the visual series. The most impressive of them is the screen in the broadest sense of the word. The features of the argumentation of the accelerated passage of time using, with the help of, or through the screen determined the relevance of this study.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the conditions for creating visual effects or reflecting the accelerated pace of the passage of time in the screen space.

The achievement of the intended goal required the use of methods of analysis of text materials, content analysis and cross-factor analysis of the source material according to parameters with their own significant content suitable for the implementation of the plan.

Research and results

At the subjective level, it has been repeatedly noted that within the framework of the formed temporal reflection, a modern person retains a fairly clear understanding of what is his "past" and what is the "future". With the "present" everything is much more complicated, because here every researcher is faced with the need to avoid arbitrariness in assessing boundaries, limits, attribution criteria, forms of argumentation of these criteria, etc. "Times do not choose", but no one and nothing, no laws, can forbid the individual to choose the modes of his attitude to them separately. physics, logic, psychology.

The researcher inevitably encounters a screen located inside the individual, and the image of the future, which has not yet come, is still in a significant majority of cases formalized by the higher mental function of imagination.

It should be noted at once that today there is a catastrophic lack of objective data on the processes of the modern world recorded by science in support of the hypothesis of time acceleration. The exception in this case is a small article by the Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, a leading researcher at the Kapitsa Institute of Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. P. Kapitsa "On the acceleration of historical time" [10], as well as a monographic study by historian I. M. Dyakonov, on whose pages the issues of time compression are also widely discussed [8]. At the same time, the mathematical model proposed by the physicist is consonant with the concept of the historian, which is a consequence of such a methodological principle as correspondence.

Nevertheless, every man in the street quite reasonably complains today about the catastrophic shortage of 24 hours available in the day, not being able to cope with the stress caused by such a time pressure. At the same time, few people realize that if previously the time devoted to reading newspapers, as a rule, fit into the hours allotted for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or the journey that the reader made from home to work and back, today the modern gadget lover often does not part with his device. for a minute. Being completely absorbed in the information flow transmitted by him, such an individual loses his sense of reality, falling out of the time frame [16; 17; 18; 19]. All this leads to a situation when a person loses the status of a subject, acting as an object of information, whose existence takes place in the overflow mode ("overflow" – Eng.).

In other words, due to the fact that the transmitted information is supposedly targeted, its selection is necessary, which, in turn, also requires time from the object of informing, while there is less and less time for other matters – personal, state, public – it remains less and less. Thus, hyperconsumption of information, often forced, becomes one of the most noticeable pressing problem areas that form the subjective basis for the perception of time acceleration.

Some authors [5, p. 39] see the historical origins of the emergence of these trends in the foundations of modernization of the general system of European culture dating back to the last century. However, at the same time, it is precisely with the emergence of new conditions for the technological modernization of this culture that the same trends have gained real strength today. In addition, the processes of subjectivization of a number of basic ontological categories in the conditions of technogenic culture led to a certain transformation of modernization processes originating in the last century [6, p. 271], which was inevitably followed by a significant change in their original nature and goal-setting.

The deontologization of temporal modes, largely inspired by the changed nature of the cultural space of modern society, in turn, gave rise to a number of phenomena of fragmentation of previous temporal models, which did not slow down to affect the subjective features of the perception of time by a person living in the present [4, p. 29]. Perceived as a resource, time gradually creates a precedent of exchange (as individually spent on one or the other), and thereby is commercialized. It is noteworthy that the nature of the individual distribution of time fragments in this new understanding and feeling of it is unknowingly determined for the individual by the forms of his possible consumption, which have the same symbolic character as it can be attributed to the entire sphere of symbolic consumption of material goods and services as a whole. If this were not the case, the visual ranks of social networks would not be overflowing with pictures of expensive resorts, restaurants, parties, top beauty salons, jewelry, expensive brands of clothing and shoes, luxury cosmetics, premium cars, country mansions, etc.

Thus, the whole existence is now becoming a total simulation [7] and, consequently, existential time itself appears as a simulacrum. At the same time, nothing else but the screen provides visualization of the simulacrum, being the main means of its representation. It is the screen that allows you to compress, squeeze the previously linear sequence of events occurring one after another, creating a completely stable and distinct feeling for the viewer sitting in front of this screen that time is not just rushing – it flies out like a projectile from a cannon.

It seems that approximately such emotional feelings arise in every gadget lover who starts every day with contact with the screen of his own smartphone. Moreover, the organization of the information picture of the world presented on this screen to the smartphone user is very conditionally connected with time ("recently", "recently", "expected in the near future", "soon", "it has already been stated that....", etc.). Temporality as a highlighted characteristic of this picture It has all the features of simulation, since the attribute to which it is purposefully attributed (screen time) in relation to astronomical time does not reveal a direct and unambiguous correspondence either in general or in the overwhelming multitude of details of such an information model [3, p. 22]. Moreover, the simulacrum of astronomical time is constructed artificially solely for the purpose of providing an appropriate emotional effect on the potential recipient of information [9, p. 79]. The irreparable disadvantage of the forcibly fragmented and then compiled image of the world created by the screens of modern technical means is that there is no equivalence between it and the original.

However, such a screen functions not only as a determinant of time acceleration [3, p. 22]. In the social reality corresponding to the new network type of society [11], he simultaneously creates a new type of intersubjectivity. Here is what J. writes about it. Weissman [1, p. 24-69]: the screen is a terminal along which the line between the individual and everything else passes. This is a portal that provides a true gadget lover with access to a range of opportunities offered to him, created artificially in order to organize a commercial exchange between him and the reality surrounding him. This is the gateway to the surrounding reality. This is the key to the gate. This is the guardian of this gate. This is the master of ceremonies of the ritual of the individual's entry into virtuality. If the ritual requires a certain amount of time for such an entry, then the time costs will be observed, tracked and attributed to the account of the incoming. It is impossible to negotiate with the screen according to its own rules, because the screen allows access only according to the rules of the screen. The power of the screen already puts a person in the dependence dictated by him, otherwise the screen becomes more powerful than a person, and begins to surpass him in some way, in some of the powers available to him, even [1].

Abstracting from the terminology of J. Baudrillard, J. Weissman points out its illusory nature as the main predication of the screen of modern electronic devices [1]. The latter is actualized through a combination of fragmentation ("assembly") methods [14, p. 97], selection, and subsequent compilation of fragments [15, p. 19]. However, this is an illusion of a special kind, which has its own dynamics, which is not correlated with the course of an ordinary clock. If an individual who prefers this watch, rather than the screen of his electronic device, does not keep up with this dynamic, this is an individual's problem. So, through the time of the screen, a person gradually weans himself from the true reality, becoming dependent on the reality of the screen. It remains to make a few more efforts in this direction – technical and technological breakthroughs – and this line in the human perception of time will be finally erased [2].

Conclusions

So, the classical model of time, which assumes that all possible changes in the continuously moving world are interconnected in space and time, in the conditions of modern information culture is partially deformed, partially annulled.

The process of revising the classical models of time perception in combination with its individualization was initiated by the philosophical trends of existentialism and postmodernism.

Current trends: one of the real reasons for the emergence of a subjective sense of acceleration of time is the acceleration of the pace of STP and the diversity of the technosphere surrounding the individual. Another such reason is the overuse of information.

The existence of modern man is increasingly becoming a simulation, and the time of existence is commercialized and becomes the subject of symbolic exchange and consumption.

According to the concept of J. Weissman, the screen of an electronic device (smartphone, tablet, TV) located next to a person in the conditions of a network society forms a new type of intersubjectivity, within which it acquires many functions, the number of which is constantly growing.

References
1. Weissman, D. (2019) Running out of time: accelerating life under digital capitalism. Moscow: Delo Publishing House, RANEPA. 304 p.
2. Virilio, P. (2004) Vision machine. St. Petersburg: Nauka. 144 p.
3. Galanina, N.V. (2016) Understanding determination in philosophical analysis. Bulletin of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. No. 2. P. 21–23.
4. Golovashina, O.V. (2016) Commercialization of time: value and price of the moment. Fractal Simulation. No. 1. Ð. 25–34.
5. Golovashina, O.V. (2012) Modernization as a European project: a linear model of time and the transformation of the socio-economic system. Fractal Simulation. No. 2. Ð. 36–44.
6. Golovashina, O.V. (2012) The phenomenon of modernization and transformation of social time. Izvestiya TamGU. No. 11(115). pp. 269–275.
7. Grigoriev, S.L. (2022) Ethical existentials of modern screen culture (on the example of the British series “Black mirror”). Society: philosophy, history, culture. No. 8(100). pp. 39-44.
8. Dyakonov, I.M. (2007) Paths of history. From ancient man to the present day. Moscow: KomKniga. 384 p.
9. Zherebin, V.M. (2014) Modern perception of time and the acceleration of the pace of life. Population. No. 2. Ð. 72–82.
10. Kapitsa, S.P. (2004) On the acceleration of historical time. New and recent history. No. 6. Ð. 3–16.
11. Castells, M. (2000) Information age: economy, society and culture: TRANS. from English. under scientific ed. O. I. Shkaratana. Moscow: State University Higher School of Economics. 608 p.
12. Lishaev, S.A. (2019) Neo-anachronistic forms of existence in the context of modernity (temporal diversity and slowdown practices). Bulletin of the Samara Humanitarian Academy. Series: Philosophy. Philology. No. 2(26). pp. 134-148.
13. Oizerman, T.I. (2009) Kant's concept of space and time. Kant's collection. 2009. Ð. 7 - 19.
14. Poznin V.F. Artistic space and time in the screen chronotope // Bulletin of St. Petersburg State University. 2019. No. 1. (V. 9). pp. 93–109.
15. Poznin V.F. Screen space: real and imaginary // Bulletin of St. Petersburg State University. 2015. No. 1 (V.15). pp. 18–25.
16. Saenko N.R. "Slow movement" as a strategy of spiritual security in modern culture // Communication technologies in education, business, politics and law: problems and prospects for implementation in the modern digital environment: collection of materials of the V International Scientific and Practical Conference, Volgograd, December 06–08, 2018 / Managing editor M. R. Zheltukhina. Volgograd: Scientific publishing house of VGSPU "Change", 2019. P. 112-113.
17. Saenko N.R. Speed: disaster or blessing? (Review of the book by D. Weissman “Time is running out: accelerating life under digital capitalism”) // Service plus. 2019. V. 13. No. 3. S. 93-95.
18. Saenko N.R., Khrustova V.S. Human Being in the Conditions of Accelerating Sociocultural Dynamics // Historical, Philosophical, Political and Legal Sciences, Cultural Studies and Art History. Questions of theory and practice. 2014. No. 2-2(40). pp. 175-178.
19. Shcheglova L.V., Saenko N.R. Paradoxes of social time // Philosophy in a polycentric world: Collection of scientific articles, Moscow, May 28–30, 2020. Moscow: New printing technologies, 2020, pp. 1310-1313.

Peer Review

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The subject of the study of the article "The screen as a determinant of time acceleration" is the phenomenon of modern temporality. The author reflects on the acceleration of the passage of time in modern conditions and connects this process with an increase in the degree of visualization of culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The central concept of the article is the concept of "screen", the meaning of which, unfortunately, is not clearly explained by the author, indicating only that he intends to use this concept in the broadest sense. In the article, many contextual definitions of the "screen" can be embedded: "the screen provides visualization of the simulacrum, being the main means of its representation", "the screen allows you to compress, squeeze a previously linear sequence of events occurring one after another, creating a completely stable and distinct feeling for the viewer sitting in front of this screen that time is simply rushing", "the screen is a terminal that draws the line between the individual and everything else," "the main predication of the screen of modern electronic devices is its illusory nature." From the context of the review, it can be assumed that the author calls various surfaces of representation of visual information by means of digital technologies "screen", and refers to them gadget screens (smartphones, tablets, laptops), computer screens, TV screens and cinemas. However, the lack of a clear direct definition of the central concept of the article reduces the theoretical component of the work. The purpose of the presented research is to reflect the accelerated pace of the passage of time in the screen space. The research methodology is defined by the author as a set of methods for analyzing text materials, content analysis and cross-factor analysis of source material. The relevance of the research is associated by the author with the need to comprehend the features of the accelerated passage of time and to use the concept of "screen time" or "screen acceleration" for this purpose. The scientific novelty of the study is reflected in its conclusions. The author argues that the classical model of time in the conditions of modern information culture is partially deformed, partially annulled. The beginning of this process was laid by existentialist and postmodern philosophers. One of the real reasons for the emergence of a subjective feeling of acceleration of time is the acceleration of the pace of STP and the diversity of the technosphere surrounding the individual. Another such reason is the overuse of information. The screen of an electronic device in the conditions of a network society forms a new type of intersubjectivity, within which it acquires a multitude of functions, the number of which is constantly growing. The style of the article is typical for scientific publications in the field of humanitarian studies, it combines the clarity of the formulations of key theses and their logically consistent argumentation. However, as already noted, an article in the field of philosophical sciences lacks the conceptualization of the central concept of research – the definition of the meaning of the term "screen". The structure of the article is logically consistent, defined by the author's division into "Introduction", "Research and results" and "Conclusions". The content reveals the stated problem. The bibliography is quite representative of the problem covered and includes 19 titles. There is an appeal to the opponents. The author pays the most attention to the ideas of J. Baudrillard and J. Weissman, concerning the predication of the screen of modern electronic devices as illusory. The article is not overloaded with special vocabulary, which allows a wide range of readers to get acquainted with it. The conclusions of the article will be of interest to both modern philosophers and cultural historians, cultural scientists, and social psychologists.