Remotely unconnected

Stuck in remote WA on a deserted gravel road with no phone signal gave me time to consider the notion of communication.

If we have no technical or social ability to connect with others, we are in darkness. Prof Tara Brabazon likes to term it as digital darkness. But in the case I'm referring to, analogue darkness also existed.

45 hours of being marooned with a radiator shot with holes, with no way to call, text, FB, email or access the www. I couldn't abuse anybody despite my desires to do so.

As someone with a title, some status in the community, and much technological efficacy, I was at the mercy of drivers passing by who had the miracle Sat-phone.

This leads me to ask, who are we if we are unable to connect with others? The mosquitoes were merciful thanks to the insect repellant, but our identity, our place within society - whatever that is, whether we choose to inhabit it or not - the very iota of existence is brought into question.

While a person might exist in their immediate world, if they cannot connect via some form of communication, then they do not exist in the wider world. I've used the term 'digital outsiders' to describe people who can't access ICTs or who choose not to. But does this go further? Those that only exist locally are not part of the globalized or glocal world of which we are now part.

We lose our humanity when we cannot communicate. We cannot share or care. We cannot convey meaning. Indeed in some ways we are limited from making our own meaning if we cannot share it with others. We cannot empathize, understand, appreciate, or learn from others, nor they from us.

Without our connections with others, we only exist in our minds. We are not part of the world's reality. If we cannot communicate with others what is going on in our mind and share it verbally via analogue or digital means, it is not part of existence.

???