So near and so far: The ‘caress’ and the ethics of technologically mediated communication

Abstract

Supposing, as a point of departure, that multiple ethical crises globally indicate the need to reshape the prevailing ethos, this article follows Luce Irigaray, contra Emmanuel Levinas, in arguing that such ethical reshaping depends as much on cultivating ‘the caress’ in intimate, communicative relationships as on constructing sustainable living environments and regulating socio-political life. The aim, firstly, is to elucidate ‘caressing intimacy’ as a style of interpersonal communication (auditory, visual and tactile), characterised by appropriate configurations of proximity and distance to another whose ‘face’ generates a charge of attraction and terror, attributable to the uncanny mystery in all people. The second aim is to show in some detail how difficult it has become to meet Irigaray’s ethical injunction in a contemporary world that is thoroughly mediated by communication technologies. This issue is addressed through a reading of Sherry Turkle’s Alone together, from which one may put together two ironically self-undermining narratives of technologically mediated communication: one of simulating proximity, the other of protective distance. While much may still be said in favour of technological mediation, global connectivity is new and immensely complex, and we have yet to negotiate its ambiguities. These analyses are aimed, finally, towards stimulating reflection on how to use communication technology with ethical insight, rather than unquestioning naiveté. Where such reflection might occur and by whom will be addressed briefly in the concluding remarks.