What's in a Number?

[kmo]

In recent conversations, I've been returning to the idea that Facebook and social media generally are driving us insane. Social media, and Facebook in particular are certainly useful. I went to my 30-year high school reunion last year, and Facebook played a major role in shaping that gathering. The Friends of the C-Realm group on Facebook puts me

Comments

Social Media is like Fire---Good Servant, bad Master

[ext_4021213]

I have two responses. I loathe social media. It eats my time that I would rather be spending doing something else. But it has two advantages.

First, it allows me to interact with people that I would never get to meet otherwise. I work at a blue collar job, even though I consider myself an intellectual. People are sorted by class in our society, and the guys who move the furniture and wipe up spills don't get invited to conferences or asked to write papers in journals---no matter how good their ideas. (I once sent a letter to an economics journal and the editor looked up my name and called me by phone and asked me for to expand what I'd written into an essay. When he asked what I taught at university, I said I was a security guard. An embarrassed silence ensued, followed by a suggestion that the letter could be edited and published in the "letters" section.) This means that I spend a great deal of my life not knowing anyone that I can discuss anything beyond sports scores or the size of women's breasts. Social media, like the C-Realm group of FaceBook offers at least something of a venue for intelligent conversation.

This is not only "just" an issue of isolation and loneliness. It is also a question of mental limitation. I am of the opinion that "no man is an island", and if someone is not allowed opportunities to discuss "deep subjects", they progressively lose the ability to think these sorts of things, or, at least do not develop as much as they could have. I believe that the dialectic of conversation is integral to human consciousness.

Secondly, I foolishly believe that I have something to share with the world around me. I've written a blog for about 20 years, publish an on-magazine devoted to local news and affairs, and, have self-published two philosophy books. The only way someone like me has any hope of marketing these sorts of things is immerse myself in social media. So, it has become something of a task I have to follow.

Social Media is a job. Just like hoeing turnips, selling burgers, or, mopping floors.

Re: Social Media is like Fire---Good Servant, bad Master

[kmo]

Yes, I can't disconnect from social media for the same reason. Tending my social media presence is part of my podcasting job.

No horse

[dode]

I really enjoyed the semi-rant from the end of episode 512 that covered this. I tend to agree that social media or the way a lot of people are using it is driving us nuts. Partly I blame how it has typically become reactive. Adopting an app or allowing your web browser to interrupt other activity creates an irritation or starts brain juices flowing that drive us away from thought and toward snarling. I noticed that earlier technologies like Usenet generally degraded as more become tended to be always on. In the days of dial-up and download there was always time for thought and the possibility to edit a post before the next batch of messages were exchanged.
Douglas Rushkoff seems to be drifting in the same direction on his musings about social media and the impact of the great distract-or. It might be worth trying to pick this up again with him.
I'm trying to disengage at least with parts of social media and have disabled all messages, making time in the morning and evening to catch up with the friends and acquaintances I value there. I'm also trying to get back into the habit of using LJ but it's been some time.
I avoid sitting on anything with teeth but have frequently listened to the podcast while rowing both on and off the water. Before moving back to the UK it was part of my commute turning an hour of european motorway into something I looked forward to in the mornings.