Elmo, Habermas

While reading Jurgen Habermas’s article, “Modernity- An Incomplete project”, I thought to myself how I would define modern. When you look up the word modern some synonyms are, contemporary, current, cutting-edge, fresh, now, and present, just to name a few. These words went along with what I had been thinking in my head, which was the word new. One quote from Habermas’s article that provided me with a good definition of modern or modernist thought was, “modernist culture has come to penetrate the values of everyday life; the world is infected by modernism. Because of the forces of modernism, the principle of unlimited self-realization, the demand for authentic self-experience and the subjectivism of a hyper stimulated sensitivity has come to be dominant” (Habermas 100-101). This really gave me an overall idea of modernism. Habermas’s use of the word infected really struck me because I truly feel as if our society has come to think that if something is not modern or new it is no longer acceptable. Modernism, as Habermas says, has definitely infected our culture.

It seems to me that in order for something to be considered modern it must outdo its predecessor and then whatever has come before is now in turn called classic or traditional. Modern is eye-catching and flashy, whereas classic is old and often times looked upon as boring; for example, the iphone. A few years ago it was considered modern and up with the times to have a flip phone that took photos and had texting ability, now that is certainly not considered modern. What is considered to be modern now is the iphone. When I look around, not only at Rollins, but pretty much anywhere I always see people on their iphone, downloading apps, taking photos, and listening to music. The iphone, with all of its advanced technology, grabs people’s attention and keeps them entertained. Since nothing has come out yet to truly rival the iphone it is still considered to be modern. In time, however, this is sure to change when the next latest and greatest gadget hits the scene. I wonder if it will be possible for us to one day hit a ceiling on what is modern and if we will ever stop trying to out glitz each other with new ideas, thoughts, and technology.