I had a colleague who loved--as far as I know still loves--Activity Theory. This person would tell me that as much as we work through technology, referring mainly digital and electronic technologies, it also works through us and shapes what we think and do beyond the time we use that particular piece of technology. At the time, I looked at her wish sincere disbelief. My mind immediately jumped to ridiculous conspiracy theories. “Are you kidding me? This sounds like The Terminator. The Matrix. The Robot Uprising.” However, I had a much more sober mind when reading Geisler, and now my former colleague’s loony idea makes some sense.
I moved away from my own loony conspieracy theories when I put this idea into another perspective. The other day, I was reading about the “gamitization” of our culture. That, in short, is how games affect learning and judgment. Of course, my conspiracy-addled mind immediately thought: “Video games are going to make us docile energy sources for the Robot Revolution! Real life will never exist again!” But no. At least not yet. I bet that games have been influencing what we do for a long time. I thought about how we learn and use games for fun. Yahtzee helps us with math. Scrabble exercises our vocabulary. Monopoly teaches us to be greedy capitalists. With all accept for the last example in mind, I was comforted to realize that gamitization hasn’t taken over my entire life.
Board games are easy to put away though. The types of technologies that Geisler talks about aren't so easy to set down and leave behind. They replace maps, phone books, journals, checkbooks, and more. When the medium changes, things can get messy. Thinking back to my gaming example. Some gaming experiences are more immersive than others. If you wanted to, you could play certain video games indefinitely. How do we know when to call it quits? Believe it or not, it's easier for me to turn off the Wii than to put down my laptop and leave work behind.
Geisler’s use of activity theory made me think of the concerns that I have with digital technologies taking over my free time. I am no Luddite, but I have recently quit Facebook and drastically reduced my using the computer for recreation. Using these things so often just seemed natural to me. Then, I realized that they were replacing some of the things I valued. Faster isn't always better. I sometimes like to be slow.
While I don’t fully understand Activity Theory now, I see its relevance. I like how it can integrate abstract culture and material action into a theory. While I think that this theory might be better situated outside of English Studies, it does have a lot of interdisciplinary appeal to me that can make sense out of our lives. Maybe there is something to all this book learning after all.
