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Beyond postmodernism
The rapid and exponential growth of the internet over the past 40 years has changed the nature of society. Indeed, at the end of the first two decades of the 21st century, the internet is our defining medium. This has implications for student learning and, consequently, teacher pedagogy.
In the modernist era, beginning around 1500 with early modern philosophy and ending around the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, truth came to be conceived of as an objective reality to be disseminated in a rational, scientific and systematic fashion. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant( 1724 – 1804), who became his own“ ism”, defined modernist methodology. Kant’ s theory( paralleling the 16th century astronomer, Copernicus) endeavoured to eschew the human mind as a passive vessel so as to, by contrast, depict it as an active mechanism for thought in cognition. As Peter Rickman puts it:“ Instead of viewing the mind as the passive centre of observation, Kant viewed the mind as an active participator in observation. More radically, the consequence of this theory
Teaching students to be critical, creative thinkers in a digitised society.
By John Lewis was that the mind creates and shapes its experiences.”
However, it was Rene Descartes( 1596 – 1650), the French mathematician and philosopher, who epitomised modernism with the aphorism“ I think, therefore I am”. As one thought as an individual, with the enlightened awareness of living within a post-medieval society, characterised by its perceptions of religious fate and feudal hierarchy, knowledge was comprehended as being factual, scientific and objective. Indeed, these facts could be tested and verified. In social theory, states Robert Samuels,“ modernity represents the rise of capitalism, science and democracy through the rhetoric of universal reason and equality”. Further, later modernity, commencing around 1800( identified by the theorist, Charles Darwin [ 1809 – 1882 ], existentialist Søren Kierkegaard [ 1813 – 1855 ] and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau [ 1817 – 1862 ]), is to be identified with industrialisation and a mechanised workforce. In higher-order thinking, observations gave way to analysis.
In postmodernism, however, truth became more subjective and based on the experiences of those seeking to discern it. The imperative of truth was replaced with the importance of relationships and the need to respect the contextual reality of others. In this worldview, analysis gave way to meta-analysis. Instead of the imperative of individual thought, born from the instruction of rationalist philosophy, there was a collective interpretation, epitomised by social media. Therefore, a concern for empirical realities, based on rational thought and a thorough investigation of the facts, became viewed through the lens of subjective and collaborated experiences. Therefore, according to philosopher Alan Kirby, postmodernism emphasised the elusiveness of meaning and knowledge.
One can now discern a further shift in thought. Indeed, postmodernism has been replaced by a new dominant worldview. In this new era, the internet dominates. Not that the internet was not a feature of postmodernism. However, accessing knowledge is no longer the main issue. As much as its content is created, the internet, in and of itself, creates realities and shapes the lives of those who access it. In this, I am not simply referring to influences, although the internet remains a dominant influence in the shaping of young minds. According to Nicholas Carr, brains are being rewired neurologically to think in entirely new ways.
The result is that the world is now seen and experienced through emerging and alternative worldviews, relationships are entered into under an entirely new set of assumptions and beliefs, and knowledge is gained and conceived of on the basis of a totally reconstructed paradigm.
Today, as Facebook is designated to an older generation, Instagram and Snapchat, containing only images, videos and brief phonetic messages, have emerged as the new ultimates. Here, it is not a matter of only being liked, but seen and encountered. The distinction between producers and consumers has also been obliterated, as everyone is seen to be a contributor, with the importance of the“ expert” being significantly undermined.
In its stead a new reality is emerging that is shaping a worldview taking society into a new phase. While Kirby referred to this emerging society as pseudomodernism, and Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker define metamodernism( from metaxis, between, since metamodernism is said to oscillate between modernism and postmodernism),
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