Media Studies Writing contemporary history
Digitalisation is nothing new. Those who are aware of this can approach technology calmly.
If digitalisation continues like this, it will continue just as it has done so far: digitalisation is nothing new. What is covered by this term today has a long history. As a media scholar, I am faced with the task of writing this contemporary history. The aim is to put digitalisation, as well as the dreams and fears that come with it, into a historical context, to take the edge off it and to approach technology calmly.
This will make it possible to ask new questions: Under the current technological conditions, how do we update the concepts of our self-image, such as work, autonomy, technology, perception and mobility? And, last but not least: How do we deal with the fact that machines are increasingly interacting and communicating with each other, for example in automated decision making or in autonomous traffic? How would we thus have to revise our understanding of machines, technologies and media today without being driven by the historically inaccurate concept of digitalisation, which draws an imprecise boundary between the digital and the analogue?