Kierkegaard and social networks: two antithetical cases of McLuhan's "cold" communication

Abstract

In this work, we examine and contrast Kierkegaard’s “indirect communication” and the open communication found on social media as two technologies or communicative media characterized by producing what McLuhan would consider a “cool” effect of deep involvement on the part of the recipient, but with totally different–and indeed opposite–emotional and psychological effects. While indirect communication pushes rational reflection to the limit where it no longer makes sense and only a stunned and overwhelmed recipient remains, standing at the edge of the leap of faith, communication on social media, with its immense real-time flow, excludes reflection from the outset because it almost immediately generates a state of contentiousness in which the irate recipient scatters, seeking objects of compassion, anger, or indignation.