Human being can be considered from two inextricably interwoven perspectives: Human nature and the human condition. Think of it as nature vs. nurture, except what is nurturing our being is the total physical environment all together.

Since post-modern theories of Social Constructionism focuses only on the content of media as environmentally-constitutive, it fails to present a relatable account of the contemporary human condition for a growing number of people. That is where Media Ecology comes in.

Creating and internalizing a fuller view of our material, technological world allows all human being—human beings—to become clearer and more relatable by relief. People as products of their environment become distinct and empathetic as we internalize the total environment as backdrop and see how it differently shapes all of us.

Only once we see the physical world for what it is can we put the *content* of the media—the spoken and written, word, Magritte’s Pipe, news from around the world, fictional stories, narcissistic externalized self-images, cybernetic measurements and simulations of reality, and cyberspaces of virtual reality—within their proper place: the interior landscape of our imagination. Only then can we counter-act the distortions of centuries of media, re-capture the human scale, and see one another again for all that we share in common together.

Study the environment—study the media—and perception of the human can’t help but pop into being by contrast.

Fortunately for us, media ecology is a field over half-a-century in development, with a large corpus of texts with a large field of research. So the mission of my projects on ConcernedNetizen.com and my various platform outlets is two-fold:

1) To adapt existing work in media ecology into modern media forms, with emphasis on Marshall and Eric McLuhan. Just like adapting a novel into a film, I’m going to try and stay true to the original works, while doing all I deem necessary creatively to relate their perceptions and ideas through cyberspace. This work is mostly retrospective—throwing new light on familiar historical and philosophical narratives of the preceding centuries.

2) To share my own perception of the internet and cyberspace, based on about twenty years of being an early adopter of technology and heavy internet-user, throwing my weight around on web forums and social media. This is going to be more contemporary, contentious, and personal. By focusing on the underlying mechanisms of our technologically-mediated world, I hope to get beneath and minimize any unnecessary clashes of ideological world-views which might otherwise present barriers to communication.

My website ConcernedNetizen.com will be a central hub, and work will be put out to various (so-called) platforms to reach as diverse an audience as possible. In a way, my mission is made easier by its goal to transcend polarizing differences of opinion: I must focus on all the low-hanging fruit of what is beyond question (i.e. the existence and operating principles of computers), and thus so totally-taken for granted as to be beneath regard!

As the common ground is sufficiently articulated, the actors on the world stage either tumble from their supercolossal magnifications, or grow from their existence as data-points dancing on the head of a pin, back to the human scale of relatability. By re-scaling the giant green head of Oz and the tiny faces lost in the crowd back to common-proportion, we can undo much of the damage media has wrought upon our perception of each other and of the world.