In What to Play with the Media?

Abstract

The media in their socially unambiguous role as the locomotive of social change always avoid discussing the problem of artificiality, inauthenticity of the information they present, which is distorted by the very fact of its presentation to a large number of consumers. Snatching from the surrounding reality certain events, angles, scenes, the media present them as the embodiment of life, or, in the worst case, as its quintessence, a universal symbol. Thus, the game inherent in such a selection is an essential characteristic of the media's attitude to reality. At the same time, the phenomenon of the game itself, as a fundamental manifestation of culture, remains little studied, despite the existence of "classical" philosophical works on this topic. If you look at the game from an applied point of view, you will understand that the game is a surprisingly accurate model of any media interaction, since it conceals a fundamental playful interest that people have shown throughout their history: the desire to discover the boundaries between socially, culturally, physically, psychologically significant dichotomies. The game is an ontological practice that humanity has invented to ensure the definition of the personal coordinate system of an individual in the social environment. In addition, the media have long since transformed from dispassionate intermediaries in the information process into an independent and committed party that acts in the social and communicative space with increasingly strict imperatives and regulations addressed to people, thereby implicitly subordinating them to its impersonal ethics. As a result, gaming, as a modern social practice, is becoming a quiet haven, an outlet for millions of young people who do not agree to accept media imperatives, to comply with an alien and outdated agenda. Gaming communication begins to resist the media mainstream and implements this with increasing success. The article concludes that humanity today is at the end of the global technological sphere of media communication, which should be replaced by a new information and technical paradigm. At the turning point of the eras, it is especially important to learn to use centuries-old gaming practices to ensure one’s own stability in the turbulent media world.