Humans can be considered their own interface. Our ability to perceive, interpret and react to sensory impressions and information can be considered a form of natural interface between the individual and the world around the individual. According to this natural interface, reality or the world will not be about everything that is or everything that happens. There are many worlds and many realities. We must therefore talk about the individual person's world or the individual person's reality. It is what immediately comes to mind for a human being with no other interface than the human being himself.
When my grandfather in the 1930s was staying in the forest cutting timber 6 days a week during the wintertime, his world was what immediately met him when he opened his eyes early in the morning – how cold was it, how much snow had fallen during the night, how was the horse – as well as some thoughts about what life was like on the small farm where my grandmother and their children kept it going.
A lot was happening around both the country and the world at that time, but it was not part of his world. It wasn't something he related to, simply because he didn't experience it. It did not present itself to him in the forest. It was not part of his reality.
I would think he had his concerns. Toil and poverty were part of my grandparents' lives - as it was for many at that time. But it was possible for them to identify their concerns as genuinely related to the life they lived. They belonged to their world. Worries and insecurities were not something they heard about - they were directly experienced.
In a more modern context, however, the expression "man is his own interface" can be understood in another way, namely the way in which people interact with technology and communication technology. People use their senses, body, and thoughts to interact with various technological devices and systems, and this interaction can be considered a form of interface between the individual and the technology.
With such an interface as the starting point, the world and reality will be greatly enlarged and precisely tend in the direction of everything that is and everything that happens. It is not only 1st-order individual experiences but also 2nd-order incorporation of stories and narratives – which then become a kind of pseudo-experiences. All the world's worries become my worries and all the world's insecurities become my insecurities.
When the world becomes digital and is primarily presented to us through social media and similar channels, our ability to separate experiencing reality from that of being incorporated into everything that is and everything that happens is undermined. The narratives eventually take precedence over our own 1st order experience, simply because they never end. It will necessarily lead to an ontological overload – which is a situation where there is an excessive amount of information or complexity within a given ontological framework.
My world or my reality becomes too big for me - and has nothing to do with me either. It just looks like it on TikTok. The presence of redundant or contradictory information, excessively detailed classifications or a lack of clear structure means that I simultaneously have a world and yet do not belong in it. When an ontology is overloaded, it may simply become impossible to make use of it or handle it. It becomes paralyzing.
"All the world's worries become my worries and all the world's insecurities become my insecurities."
While handling ontological overload should involve reducing complexity and limiting the amount of information within a framework, there is much evidence that the opposite is happening. The communication technology will not be discontinued. Rather, it will move into you and become a permanent source of such overload. People, and especially young people, drown in reality – but fail to establish a reality of their own that is supported by their direct experiences. This will disrupt the ability to regulate one's own thoughts, feelings, and actions - which is a form of interface between one's inner self and one's outer actions.
As a counterbalance, however, one can practice ontological minimalism, and deliberately build up a minimal ontology, perhaps based only on a sense. It can be about sitting outside in the forest on a spring day and only considering hearing as a source of reality. In that way, you can also rediscover your ability to create reality - your own reality - and not just be flooded by an imperialist meta-reality that is not yours - or anyone's for that matter - and which you therefore cannot make use of. □
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