During the height of the romantic era, Richard Wagner wrote his Gesamtkunstwerk known as the Ring Cycle. Over 15 hours long, it either captivates his audience or it puts them to sleep. If the latter occurs, is it because the individual lacks empathy? Or does the individual just not find the 15 hour German, romantic opera interesting? In her article “Express Thyself! The Digitally Revealed Self,” Rosen explains that the emotion of empathy has decreased in recent years because of the use of technology and social media. Emotions are socially influenced and the use of online chat rooms or comments on posts can engender negative and uncivilized conversations that spread like wildfire. Technology favors the “now” concept which is not given …show more content…
While the Gates’s home allows individuals to create their own Gesamtkunstwerk because of the absence of a narrator, and it unifies cyberspace with Gesamtkunstwerk, it is one demonstration of society's shift from total work of art —Gesamtkunstwerk— to total data work of art— Gesamtdaten Werk. One of Smith’s other prime examples of unified arts is the interactive Manzanar piece. By drawing on the ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk, Manzanar allows individuals to experience a perfect totality of art and history. While Smith’s argument discusses the positives of cyberspace on society, he never once mentions the effect of cyberspace on the human emotion of empathy. Rosen is adamant that social media has negatively impacted society by taking away the emotion of empathy. This in turn has an affect on how people appreciate the theatrical arts. Without empathy, the audience cannot understand much less accept why Brunnhilde spared Siegmund’s life, saved Sieglinde, or set up the parameters of her punishment so that she may awaken to Siegfried’s kiss. Smith understands empathy when he says that Gesamtkunstwerk is always falling but always redeeming. This seems to be a fact that Rosen is ignorant of. Perhaps social media is a Gesamtkunstwerk and is currently falling but will redeem itself