Silent Shapers: Why Web Workers Have the Most Important Jobs of the 21st Century
August 12th, 2009 in Web Design Culture
by: Matthew Griffin
When we think of world changers through history, our minds instinctively turn to primary causes. Stories of Hitlers, Alexanders, and Napoleans intrigue us and shape our understanding of why things are the way they are. In most cases, though, it's secondary causes that are most necessary to the outcome of history. Philosophers, inventors, writers, and martyrs; these are the figures, without which our world would would be a very different place. These silent shapers converge and collide, many times unwittingly, to channel and shape the events and leaders of the future. I realize that pegging "web worker" as the most important job of the 21st century is quite a claim, but many signs point to the web worker as the secondary cause of the next generation's cultural atmosphere. Not only that, the web worker may be the most unexpected and unacknowledged secondary cause of change the world has ever known.
The Web Is New... The Web Is Growing...
It hasn't always been easy to define my job. Even today, over nine years after I landed my first freelance website project, I have difficulty explaining exactly what I do. But I forget that as far as vocations go, web designer is barely a sprout—it's just flat out new. As much a we've all become dependent on web-related technology, the field is so new that very few adults can say they grew up on the internet. Add to this the fact that web design and web technology is constantly evolving and being turned over into something new, and you've got a wild, high-speed industry. That's not to say it's risky or economically undependable, though; it's just a fast-growing monster. Companies like Google and Yahoo! whose primary source of income didn't exist fifteen years ago are suddenly economic powerhouses. Go to www.comscore.com at any time and check out the press release section. You'll see news of online businesses competing with and swallowing up traditional businesses every day. It's like a great barrier reef grew up overnight—jutting up out of what seemed to be nothing, consuming more and more space, swarming with life, and yet hidden under the surface of physical reality.
The Web Is Underestimated
Ever since the web was overestimated around the turn of the millennium, it's been consistently underestimated at every turn. According to Online Spin even Bill Gate admitted that Redmond underestimated the web. The funny thing is that it was only ever overestimated on one point: selling retail products. But this one point seems to have a stranglehold on the public's understanding of the web. For many people, no matter how many emails they read a day or how much news they get from the web, or how many friends they have on Facebook, the word "website" will always be equated with retail e-commerce. It's not just the average Joe that makes this association either; the entire newspaper industry is still struggling to break out of this mindset (and suffering greatly for it, I might add). To put it into perspective, the situation is like a publisher looking at Guttenburg's newly invented movable type printing press and saying, "That's neat, but the thing is too bulky... Our calligraphers could never do their work on that glorified writing table." The web is at least as important a development as the printing press and possibly more. It's a worldwide, multi-language hub of human knowledge and interaction, and is fast becoming the primary information source for humanity. Do I really need to say more?
The Web Worker Is Misunderstood
What does a web designer do? I mentioned above that I've always had difficulty explaining my work. In part, this is due to the infancy of the technology web designers use, but another huge part is a misunderstanding of the role of the web designer in society in general. Are web designers programmers? Are they graphic artists? Are they geeks? Are they philosophers? Are they socialites? The answer is yes. Web workers are in the process of building layer of reality on top of the physical world; a layer of reality which contains all of the abstract relational human elements of the world in which we live and breathe.
In the broadest sense, a web worker is anyone who is contributing to this new layer of reality. But when we say "web designer" we are usually referring to a particular type of web worker. We are talking about the architects of the new reality—the people designing its look, pounding out HTML, and building logical programming models for human interaction on the web. As you read this, web designers all over the world are managing large communities of people, communities ruled by laws with real consequences. True, the worst consequences include getting kicked out of a community, but they are real consequence nonetheless. And they are consequences driven by laws that cross international borders. Essentially, web designers and other web workers are designing systems of government that channel our relational behavior and tell us what type of interaction is right or wrong within those systems. If you can think of a more culture-shaping job, please let me know.
The Web Worker Is Underestimated
We talked about how the web is underestimated, but we have a double whammy here in that the web worker is also underestimated. The typical web worker isn't the clueless pimple-faced teenager he's made out to be. The typical web worker, or more specifically web designer, is young, independent, ambitious, and idealistic. And if I could emphasize one characteristic on that list, it would be idealistic. My first trip to the SXSW interactive festival opened my eyes to this fact. The panel topics and even the audience questions tended toward social theory and responsibility more than technical topics. Combine this with the power described above and you have the ingredients for rapid and drastic social and cultural change. The fact that the web workers are underestimated gives them freedom to make these rapid changes while the old world wallows in the old world system.
Who Are These Silent Shapers and Where Are They Taking Us?
If you're reading this, most likely your are one of these silent shapers. You may have never thought of yourself in the terms described here; nevertheless, this is your role. So the second part of the question is really posed to you. Where are you taking us? If you've been reading here for long, you know that my primary focus is Christian worldview in web design. Right now the silent shapers seem to be overwhelming berthed from the hybrid or postmodernist worldview camp. This has radical implications for the future of culture worldwide. Christian web designers have an unprecedented opportunity to shape future culture right now and, for the most part, we are handing the reigns over to an unlivable worldview that has no foundation in truth.
The problem isn't that there are no Christian web designers—there are plenty of them. The problem is that Christian web designers have no idea how to apply a biblical worldview to their vocation. Christian designers can't contribute Christian ideas to the development of culture unless they have a definitive Christian grid through which Christian ideas may be produced. And Christian designers can't develop a biblical worldview grid by wallowing in the litany of Christian self-help literature that saturates the market today. It's imperative that the Christian web designer challenge himself or herself with solid Christian writing on a consistent basis so that truth—real complex biblical truth—will have a showing in this new world. Being workers in the most important job of the 21st century, we can't afford not to.
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Comments
Posted By: Garrett W. on 09/25/09
It saddens me that so much of the internet populous is, as you say, "berthed from the hybrid or postmodernist worldview camp." I, too, am a Christian web designer (though I'm not actively promoting my services), and it's unfortunate that the web communities that exist are mostly non-Christian. It seems to me that there is very little representation of Christian ideals on the Internet today -- why do you think that is? Could the God-less majority really be intimidating us into not spreading the Word? I know I feel it. But I also believe that as Christians, it is our most critical *duty* to never back down from defending and spreading His message. So why would we? Could it be that the majority of doctrinal teaching has become so watered-down that many Christians no longer know why they believe what they do, much less how to defend it? That's what I see happening all the time. We need less feel-good, self-help teaching, and more solid Scriptural meat, if you know what I mean. We need to know why we believe in Christ, down to the core reasons. We *really* need to know what the Bible says -- otherwise, how can we be living examples, as we are commanded to be? How can we teach others if we ourselves do not know the truth of the matter? I've had a website idea for a few months now, but haven't had the time or motivation to do much with it. The idea is to create a site that brings religious discussion into the "Web 2.0" age. My idea involves a blog and a forum. Alternatively, a wiki might be useful -- I don't know. All I know is this: if we do not continue to engage in healthy debate, we will settle for "agreeing to disagree", because we are too lazy to research our own position or the positions of others ... too lazy and conflict-averse to question our differences ... too lazy to dig down to the truth of a matter.
Posted By: Matthew Griffin on 09/28/09
Thanks for the comment, Garrett. I agree that, at least for all practical purposes, the Christian voice is absent from the public square in design. I believe there are three primary causes of this. First, we have an ongoing unspoken agreement with secularism that as long as it stays out of the church, Christians will stay out of the public square. Second, we generally view our intellectual relationship to other worldviews as one of defense rather than dominion. Our understanding "The gospel" has been narrowed in this defensive posture to include only the redemption of the individual soul. We completely neglect the redemption of culture and creation. This is true in the arts as well as apologetics (which itself means defense). We're obsessed with doing "just as good" as the world, when our worldview and our intellectual tradition actually put us in a position to greatly surpass it. Lastly, we've forgotten our Christian artistic and intellectual tradition. Even if we wanted to remedy the first two problems, our lack of training and understanding prevents us from accomplishing the task.