Sk-etchbook

Over the past three years I've studied a diverse (somewhat random) selection of disciplines. In the last year however I have begun to notice numerous examples of sameness in the way they explain matters. Here are a few samples:

Objects
Earlier in the year we were discussing how companies and products are branded, how coveted ideals and lifestyles are associated with them to manipulate consumers opinions. Similarly Buddhism teaches that objects posses no separate identity beyond that which we apply to them, in fact it goes as far to say that physicality is not even true reality. Therefore the way I perceive an object can be completely different from how others do and in fact is more about mis-perception than true perception.
Social Science studies how individuals develop Identity (or multiple identities to be more specific) then apply culturally dependent meanings to objects (eg. football scarfs, cars etc.) as to identify others with similar lifestyles, tastes, beliefs, status or class. Some of the areas of Social Science & Mentalism also cover how our identities/personalities are initially formed, how the brain stores and retrieves information and how memory works by audio, visual and kinesthetic association. So if we think about this analytically objects themselves become increasingly irrelevant in terms of communication unless we grasp how our audience perceives the object, what experiences they associate with that object and how in some cases we can affect or even rewrite the way they perceive that object.
Languages are another example of this, I can speak English, limited Spanish and a tiny amount of French. Lets take an everyday object like a table. In Spanish it's a 'mesa', in Korean it's a '테이블' and in Dutch it's a 'lijst'. At no point does the object change in anyway but at the same time it is labeled completely differently by separate societies.

So going on these principals discussed and also pulling in some of the other knowledge learned from Critical studies and design/colour theory then we end up with a pretty good explanation of human perception.

People & Identity
The main areas of research which have influenced my views on how people form their individual identities and opinions would be Social Science, Critical Studies and Mentalism which all seem to elaborate on the same issues. There are also some interesting points covered in Communication/Interactive Design, DVP & Colour Theory.

I believe comprehending diversity in modern societies is the key issue followed by an understanding of the things we all share. There is technique known as 'Cold Reading' which demonstrates this well. It can be used by mentalists and fortune tellers to give a person the impression they know a lot more about them then they actually do.
For more on the topic see this article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading

I watched a program a while ago about changes in British society, apparently teenagers didn't exist 100 years ago. Admittedly this sounds strange however it went on to explain how the invention of things like crystal radio sets and nylon(?) allowed teenagers to listen to different music from their parents and wear different clothes. This allowed for teenagers to start asserting their individuality, the freely available choices gave way to the development of trends, teenagers could associate themselves with others who shared similar tastes and interests whilst distancing themselves from individuals with different or opposing opinions.
This was probably a incredible move towards developing a society of freethinking individuals with diverse tastes, priorities and requirements ready to oppose the establishment. I suppose the down side of this is that as teenagers could then only associate themselves with others who agreed with their views it allowed them to become more closed-minded to being in the wrong. It is very easy these days to simply dismiss the views of others if they oppose your own then reinforce your views by only discussing them in any depth with the people who agree with you.
Surely it is better to listen to all available opinions then consider them, analyze them logically and calmly then come to your own conclusions. More and more people seem to focus on proving themselves to be in the right rather than reinforcing their outlook on life by attempting to prove themselves wrong.
Unfortunately with the media having the influence it does these days on the public there is an incredibly large number of "Sheeple", people who blindly believe whatever they are told without question. Personally I think this is incredibly dumb. The bulk of the media reports news in a 'filtered' way. The stories are tainted by the opinions of the sources, researchers, editors, producers or reporters. There is also the fact that nearly all media is driven by fiscal requirements, they compete for market share and have to give the pitch-fork wielding peasants what they want. Unbiased truth does not sell anywhere as much as scandal, gossip and hearsay. People are fascinated by taboo subjects because there is a part in most of us who wants to do the things we're told not to do, push that 'Don Not Press' button or deviate from the norm.
However this is also a very important part of the human psyche. There was a David Attenborough program on a while back covering the development of societies. They were observing several different breeds of primates and it showed how this inquisitive nature was the key factor to our evolution. Through curiosity and experimentation the primates stood on two legs, developed tools and when something worked well the others copied them until another member of the group discovered a better solution.

Human Belief
I have covered the belief from several angles and it is a fascinating subject. Now I'm not just talking about belief in the terms of religion here although the opinions we hold about which religion is correct (or lack of) does have a massive influence on an individual/groups moral stance.
In a way not dissimilar to the way we discussed objects earlier our personal beliefs are dependent on our experiences, what we have done and what we get told. As we develop through childhood we are told stories because these give us relevant information needed for our brains to make educated choices. All this reference information we stock pile throughout our lives is what allows us to make judgments on what is the "right" thing to do in any given situation. If any of you have seen Terry Pratchet's Hogfarther there is a speech given by Death near the end which is very apt. It is something along the lines of children need to believe in the little lies like, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy in order to believe in the big lies like morality and right and wrong when they grow up.
Marketing is a manipulation of human belief. In this day and age many products are produced by the same sources and the superiority of one product over another is debatable. Everybody has their own set of priorities and once you know what they are it is easy to appeal to these and reinforce your products appeal by reassuring the consumer that their opinions are the correct ones. Take fashion for example, they're are many people out there that believe if they wear designer clothes then people will look up to and admire them, unfortunately for them this is not the case they're are just as many people out there who will simple see them as shallow or fickle.
We seek out evidence to support our own beliefs and dismiss any contradicting opinions with great ease. There is a chapter in the 'Tricks of the Mind' book covering this matter and it says how a lady called in to a radio show to speak to a medium. She said she thought her house may be haunted because the piano makes noises when the room is empty. The medium said his friend was a piano tuner and it was probably just caused by humidity contracting the the strings. The caller didn't seem very happy with this reply so the medium went on to say something like the C note resonates at a psychic frequency which causes the fairies to sing. The caller was much happier with this explanation as it was more like what she was wanting to hear!

Reality
Now this doesn't really have much to do with digital media however it's a pretty interesting subject and at a stretch you could say it's an extension of what I earlier covered about objects and perception. I've worked pretty hard over the past few years and this was starting to run me down. I joined the gym and then started learning about meditation. Meditation then led on to an interest in Buddhism, something that I previously thought was just another load of religious nutters taking stories too literally and not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions. Now like many other people I was just making assumptions based on my experiences and thinking I knew more then I actually did.
Once I started to read up on the subject I found out it's not about worshiping gods but more about understanding and harnessing the mind, understanding reality and living worthwhile lives. Now I have a scientific outlook on life and like to question things. The surprising issue here was that our most advanced sciences and most ancient philosophies support these teachings rather than defunct them.
In brief we only perceive and comprehend the physical, when things become too large or small the classical laws of physics no longer apply. Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the atomic scale, such as molecules, atoms, electrons, protons and other subatomic particles. The similarities between what we now know about this area of physics, Buddhism and mereological nihilism is astounding. For more on this subject see http://abstractatom.com

Finally on this matter I am astounded how little significance is given to the importance of the human mind in western societies. We live in a culture obsessed with materialism and greed, people are driven by selfish needs. A subject covered on 'The Diets that Time Forgot' a program on C4 I caught a glimpse of. It compared the participants reasons for wanting to loose weight to the reasons given in Victorian times. All the modern ones were selfish things like "I want to look good" or "I want to get a boyfriend" contacting the Victorian reasons of "I want to be healthy to take care of my children" or "I want to help do more work".
For me having a better understanding of reality, no matter how brief, does have a calming effect and does help you to focus on what is actually important in life.