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theadvancedapes  ·  4137 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The anthropological aspect of Facebook

    I wonder how this will affect storytelling though.

Modes of storytelling have always been altered by technology. Most anthropologists are starting to consider language itself to be a technology. The types of narratives you can construct pre-language are quite primitive. Very short strings of symbols without grammar. With language storytelling can properly emerge. Perhaps as a function of explaining things that are confusing or mysterious. Perhaps as a function to aid in something natural selection related (e.g., improve hunting routes by telling stories, etc.), or sexual selection related (e.g., telling a story about something intelligent, novel, or funny to a member of the opposite sex to increase chances of copulation).

Then think about how story telling would be changed by the invention of writing systems. All of a sudden you can transcend time and space. You can read the thoughts and words of someone who isn't immediately present. This significantly enlarges the number of stories that can be told (i.e., quantifiably changes stories), but also qualitatively changes stories by significantly enlarging the types of stories that can be told (i.e., let me tell you a story from another time and another space that you have never experienced and may never experience).

In contemporary times stories can be told in a number of different mediums that never existed before. We use new technologies to create more stories and different stories. That will never stop. Stories will always change both qualitatively and quantitatively in relation to the technologies in existence. This shapes families, friends, and every social unit. Fundamentally changing the nature of story telling fundamentally alters the types of relationships we have, because they change the human narrative and how we imagine our lives.