The Horizons of Human Mentality in the Media Continuum

This article examines the trends in ongoing and predicted changes in the most general attitudes of the mental sphere of modern people, considered in relation to other epochs of human history. The trends under study are strongly associated with the next round of the fundamentally significant processes of the media’s becoming an all-embracing continuum in the life of human society. The paper describes how qualitative epochal restructuring of human civilization is influenced by the persistent products of human activity in different periods of history. As a result, the author suggests dividing the axial time of mankind, in E. Toffler’s terms, into four “waves” with specific features inherent in them. The paper specifies certain already established behavioural characteristics of the modern young generation and provides author’s assessments of some of them. In addition, the article points out great likelihood of society’s rapid transition to fundamentally new value models, produced mainly by the media environment, which is currently defined as global and seeks to, in the near future, take shape of a continuum covering all spheres of human existence, erasing cultural and language barriers along the way. Further, the article underlines the importance and relevance of the predictive function of science in this area, as the ongoing changes are rapid and, most likely, irreversible. The author assumes that the humanity can be entering into a large-scale value crisis, to overcome which we would need to better understand the future realities and their underlying causes.