Thumbs up or thumbs down in the system of modern, digital, everyday communication is not new, it has been with us for many years. In imitation of Nero or Caesar, who used their imperial thumbs raised up or lowered down during morbid parties for the wider masses of people and with which, with the help of the people present, they decided who bought their life and who didn't, today it is a functionality that the fathers of social networks from the historical archives of ancient Rome and the Roman Empire brought directly to our homes, our computer screens, mobile device screens and everyday life.
The thumb and its reanimated symbolism came to us in a package with one of the software applications that spawned millions of digital profiles. For the first time in human history, a person could rent a certain virtual space and recreate his personality, his new, digital appearance in these digital frames. Face book, as the application could be literally translated into my native language, is a kind of catalog of digital citizens who volunteered to fill in almost every column about themselves, their wishes, ideas and dreams, education, favorite food or music, hobbies, children, pets, partners, jobs, marital or social status.
Modern man has been given the opportunity to carefully and anew build, rearrange and correct the idea and vision of himself. The packaged and rearranged, new, digital body has become present and accessible to the entire digital community at any moment. Even when its real owner is not.
Each individual piece of content that would be broadcast through digital profiles is placed in the context of the general validation of the digital audience. As in ancient Rome, the apparently simple and simplified method of the raised and lowered thumb is offered here. Thumbs up for liking and approval for published content that someone would create for themselves and their digital profile, thumbs down for the opposite, disagreement and non-acceptance. In this way, with the help of new digital bodies, people could very quickly immerse themselves in the lives of other digital bodies and their owners and use their virtual thumbs to symbolically express their attitude and opinion.
Just like in ancient Rome, with the help of the thumb as the strongest and most important part of our hand (because it is responsible for squeezing, holding and grasping), we are enabled to make decisions about something, even for fun. Regardless of the time distance or cultural differences, motivated by the same motive - fun, this gesture very successfully connected the ancient Roman citizen, who was considered to be elementary literate or completely illiterate, with today's man - the citizen, who is considered to be educated and emancipated.
Gesturing, voting with their thumbs, exclamations and noise, deciding the lives of the unlucky ones in the arena, the ancient citizens had fun and in this way probably tried to forget about the lives they lived or any difficulties they had. Then the slogan "bread and games" or more literally "bread and circuses" (Latin: panem et circenses) was created, at the moment when Roman poets tried to describe and alarm the general apathy of the citizens of Rome who, thanks to free bread and the increasing interest in life and death fights in the arenas, otherwise organised by representatives of the government and the state, lost interest in politics and caring for the society in which they lived, leaving it to the emperors and the imperial bureaucracy.
A place of general euphoria and entertainment, which by the way also offered a sense of false democracy, where the twisted civil right to vote would be exercised with roars and raised or lowered thumbs - the arena - became a place of transformation and re-education. In such places, with short-term interests and almost unimportant needs satisfied, for free bread and good, bloody fun, the people slowly became disinterested in real, more important, existential problems and long-term interests. With the financing and support of these events, moments when an individual would feel full, entertained, almost important, the government secured its position.
The digital age we live in brings entertainment everywhere. Entertainment today has no problem with location or time of performance, it is transmitted through new devices and media. Entertainment today can be repeated, it can be watched several times. It can be chopped up, reassembled, upgraded and such, it can live a completely new and separate life. The entertainment is at home, on the street, at school, hospital, police station, courtroom, city or state administration. The entertainment is so present that thumbs up or down, we, Thumbelinas, do almost nothing but have a good (and bloody) time. Basically, nothing big and important has ever changed.
Podignuti ili spušteni palac u sistemu savremene, digitalne, svakodnevne komunikacije nije novina, sa nama je već dugi niz godina. Po ugledu na Nerona ili Cezara koji su svoje carske palčeve podignute na gore ili spuštene na dole koristili tokom morbidnih zabava za šire narodne mase i kojima su, uz pomoć prisutnog naroda, odlučivali ko je otkupio svoj život a ko ne, danas je to funkcionalnost koju su nam oci društvenih mreža iz istorijskih arhiva antičkog Rima i rimskog carstva donijeli direktno u kuće, ekrane naših računara, ekrane mobilnih uređaja i svakodnevni život.
Palac i njegova reanimirana simbolika došao nam je u paketu sa jednom od programskih aplikacija koja je iznjedrila milione digitalnih profila. Po prvi put u ljudskoj istoriji čovjek je mogao da zakupi određen virtuelni prostor i da u tim, digitalnim okvirima rekreira svoju ličnost, svoje novo, digitalno obličje. Knjiga lica ili knjiga obličja (face book), kako bi se aplikacija doslovno mogla prevesti na moj maternji jezik, svojevrstan je katalog digitalnih građana koji su volonterski ispunjavali gotovo svaki ponuđeni stubac o sebi, svojim željama, idejama i snovima, obrazovanju, omiljenoj hrani ili muzici, hobijima, djeci, ljubimcima, partnerima, poslovima, bračnom ili društvenom statusu.
Savremeni čovjek dobio je priliku da pažljivo i iznova izgradi, preuredi i koriguje ideju i viziju o sebi. Zapakovano i preuređeno, novo, digitalno tijelo postalo je prisutno i na uvid dostupno cjelokupnoj digitalnoj zajednici u svakom trenutku. I onda kada njegov stvarni vlasnik nije.
Svako pojedinačno parče sadržaja koje bi se emitovalo kroz digitalne profile stavljeno je u kontekst opšte validacije digitalnog auditorijuma. Kao i u antičkom Rimu i ovdje je ponuđena naizgled jednostavna i uprošćena metoda podignutog i spuštenog palca. Palac gore za sviđanje i potvrdu za objavljeni sadržaj koji bi neko za sebe i svoj digitalni profil napravio, palac na dole za suprotno, neslaganje i neprihvatanje. Na ovaj način, uz pomoć novih digitalnih tijela, ljudi su vrlo brzo mogli da se upuste u živote drugih digitalnih tijela i njihovih vlasnika i da koriste svoje virtuelne palčeve kako bi na simboličan način izrazili svoj stav i mišljenje.
Baš kao i u antičkom Rimu, uz pomoć palca kao najsnažnijeg i najbitnijeg dijela naše šake (jer je zaslužan za stiskanje, držanje i hvatanje) omogućeno nam je da o nečemu odlučujemo, pa makar i iz zabave. Bez obzira na vremensku udaljenost ili kulturološke razlike, podstaknut istim motivom - zabavom, ovaj gest je vrlo uspješno spojio antičkog rimskog građanina, za kojeg je važilo da je elementarno pismen ili potpuno nepismen, sa današnjim čovjekom - građaninom, za kojeg se drži da je obrazovan i emancipovan.
Gestikulirajući, glasajući palčevima, uzvicima i galamom, odlučujući o životima nesrećnika u areni, antički građani su se zabavljali i na taj način vjerovatno nastojali da zaborave na živote koje su živjeli ili eventualne poteškoće koje su imali. Tada je nastala kovanica “hljeba i igara” ili doslovnije “hljeba i cirkusa” (latinski: panem et circenses), u trenutku kada su rimski pjesnici pokušavali da opišu i alarmiraju opštu apatiju građana Rima koji su, zahvaljujući besplatnom hljebu i sve većim zanimanjem za borbe na život i smrt u arenama, inače organizovane od strane predstavnika vlasti i države, izgubili interes za politiku i brigu o društvu u kojem su živjeli, prepustivši je carevima i carskoj birokratiji.
Mjesto opšte euforije i zabave koje je uzgred nudilo i osjećaj lažne demokratije, gdje bi se urlikanjem i podignutim ili spuštenim palčevima ostvarivalo izvitopereno građansko pravo glasanja - arena - postajalo je i mjesto transformacije, prevaspitanja i reedukacije. Na takvim mjestima, uz zadovoljene kratkoročne interese i gotovo nevažne potrebe, za besplatan hljeb i dobru, krvavu zabavu, narod je polako postajao nezainteresovan za stvarne, važnije, egzistencijalne probleme i dugoročne interese. Uz finansiranje i podršku ovih događaja, trenutaka kada bi se pojedinac osjećao sitim, zabavljenim, gotovo i bitnim, vlast je osiguravala svoj položaj.
Digitalno doba u kojem živimo zabavu donosi svuda. Zabava danas nema problem sa lokacijom ili vremenom održavanja, ona se prenosi novim uređajima i medijima. Zabava danas može i da se reprizira, ona može da se odgleda i po nekoliko puta. Može i da se isjecka, premontira, nadogradi i takva, ona može da zaživi potpuno novim, odvojenim životom. Zabava je u kući, na ulici, u školi, bolnici, policijskoj stanici, sudnici, gradskoj ili državnoj upravi. Zabava je toliko prisutna da uzdignutih ili spuštenih palaca, mi, Palčići, gotovo ništa drugo i ne radimo do se dobro (i krvavo) zabavljamo. U suštini, ništa se veliko i bitno nikada i nije promijenilo.
