Once upon a time….
There was a Medium that was liner. It was passive. Lumbering. It reasoned slowly and was a fairly concrete thinker.. It was imposing; more a byproduct of sheer size than disposition. It was relatively docile and lived peacefully amongst humanity for nearly a century. For most inhabitants of the planet, the Medium was a loyal and trustworthy companion. However there was not much customization capability when it came to its use as a marketing communication channel. It was expensive, wasteful and inefficient. It remained unchanged for nearly its entire existence. More and more it was becoming clear that as it aged, fate would have it fade into dust only to become but a whisper in ancient time. Sadly, it would be as if it had never existed at all.
The 21st century came along and with it a New Medium was born. It connected the people. It set free legions of the oppressed. It promised to be accountable and more efficient. It was going to not only empower consumers but allow marketers to co-opt them. This New Medium was endowed with processing power that approached the speed of light, was quick and intelligent and proved to be a formidable foe. Its roar of disruption all but destroy the Old Medium, who by now was shunned and left alone to die.
But it didn’t take too long for all of the dazzling wizardry and laser light showmanship to wear thin. The New Medium was beginning to appear more and more as an epidemic of distraction than a vehicle for progression – Not just to marketers looking to reap the rewards promised by the new savior, but every day people trying to get along without it. Every empty grove of inactivity in life was instantly filled (with vicious precision) by connected devices and reality flattening apps; like black ink spewing forth from the tentacles of a giant cyborg-squid. The New Medium wanted more than co-existence, it demanded to be worshiped. With the promise to highly social, status seeking primates, that they would never miss out on anything ever again… they eagerly bowed their heads to a god that fit in the palm of their hand. But it was they who were in the palm of the New Mediums’ hand. With ease and stealth, it frazzled an entire generation, enslaving them with captivation without them even realizing. It wasn’t too long before the towering new monolith began, from obtuse angles, to resemble something else…. something alien. Just as it was about to completely envelop the world which the Old Medium used to inhabit, a crack was discovered in its veneer and a look inside shocked those who had fallen under its mesmerizing allure. The once imposing powerhouse with its frighteningly mysterious qualities, was empty.. A figment of the imagination that was merely a projection of individual fears!!
Meanwhile the Old Medium, tiered of feeling useless and irrelevant, realized what others were waking up too. A new day was dawning. A new outlook on life was taking shape and it resembled something familiar, something that for a while felt as if it had been lost forever. It felt energized. Rejuvenated! Slowly it rose from its hazy funk, shook off the cobwebs and challenged the mighty high-tech Kraken! A’warring for the heavens ensued. There were thunderous collisions that reverberated around the world. Sparks of friction flashed 1000 times more radiant than lightening. Humanity, pitiful and helpless, could only cower as the 2 Gladiators ravaged each other and the terrain around them.
Then……silence. Only a cloud of dust the size of a mountain remained. Too thick to see that which it enveloped, those with only the most hardened nerves of steel attempted a closer look. As they approached, the cloud thinned slightly…..then slightly more……until………..nothing. Both Mediums were gone. They had destroyed each other! Or at least that’s what appeared to have happened, for they were both nowhere to be found. Then without warning, a strange object from above began a slow descent onto the scorched landscape. It was indescribably beautiful; advanced and otherworldly yet familiar and comforting. It was the Old Medium! Different. New. Improved. As a result of the epic battle, the Old Medium had Evolved.
So it came to pass…
The Old Medium and the New Medium had learned from one another. They understood that co-existence was more beneficial than mutually assured destruction and that borrowing elements from one another could not only help themselves, but the broader society of which they were inextricably a part of. Most importantly, their newfound symbiosis was received with gratitude by the inhabitants of their one and only planetary home. The people prospered.
The End.
