The Hearth vs. The Screen

The quiet takeover of Naga ImaginationIn Naga villages, stories were once told around the hearth. Elders spoke, children listened and questions were asked and answered. The teller was known to everyone and the story carried the weight of a name, a clan and a lifetime of trust. Today, much of that storytelling has moved to the screen.A chapter from William F Fore’s book Mythmakers: Gospel, Culture and the Media offers a useful lens for this change. It is argued that the mass media did not simply arrive and take over a society. Something in the culture itself was found to need them. In the author’s view, the driving force was industrial capitalism, with its values of efficiency, standardization and profit.The lessons of this argument are not distant from Nagaland. Television, mobile phones and social media are now present in nearly every home, from the commercial hub to the remotest village. The question is seldom asked whether these tools are being used, or whether they are quietly doing the shaping.One concern raised in the book is the separation of the message from the messenger. Before the telegraph, news came from neighbours who could say, “I was there, and it was not like that.” Now, information arrives from unknown sources, stripped of context. Forwarded messages travel through village WhatsApp groups with no author and no way of being questioned. Rumours spread faster than facts, and trust is placed in what is seen on a screen rather than in what is known about a person.Another concern is the way constant consumption is encouraged. Advertising, it is argued, teaches that identity is found in ownership, that the old must be discarded, and that newer is always better. Among Naga youth, the pressure to follow fashion, gadgets and lifestyles seen on screen is already visible. Dress, music and even aspirations are increasingly borrowed from distant markets, while traditional songs, shawl patterns and oral histories are left unlearned.Fore also points to the power of stories that are not taken seriously. Disneyland is described as a place that appears to offer only fun, yet teaches lessons about progress, good and evil, and conquest. The most influential messages, it is observed, are often those that are enjoyed rather than examined. The same can be said of films, reels and serials consumed daily without reflection.None of this means that modern media should be rejected. Education, livelihoods, church life and the voice of Naga communities have all been strengthened by technology. Local online news portals and digital archives are helping to preserve languages and record history.What is needed is awareness. Families can be encouraged to ask who is speaking, who benefits and what is being sold. Churches and schools can be places where media is discussed, not merely consumed. Parents and elders can be reminded that the hearth is still available, and that a story told face to face carries a trust no screen can supply.A people that tells its own stories is not easily reshaped by the stories of others. If Naga culture is to be kept alive, the storytelling must be kept alive with it.