Comments | zarq: Early-Morning Cynical Philosophy Links

zarq

Early-Morning Cynical Philosophy Links

Feb 10, 2007 06:15

7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making Us Miserable

Scientists call it the naked photo test, and it works like this: Say a photo turns up, of you nakedly doing something that would shame you and your family for generations. Bestiality, whatever. Ask yourself how many people in your life you would trust with that photo. Studies show that for almost ( Read more... )

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Comments 13

supergee February 10 2007, 11:27:35 UTC

The author suffers from Neurotypical Communications Disorder

Many neurotypicals have managed to get by without a very clear understanding of words by perceiving tone of voice and body "language." (An extreme example of this is the horse Clever Hans, who gave the impression of being able to do arithmetic when he was actually interpreting these codes). As can be seen from many Internet discussions, this leaves them differently abled for purely verbal communications. (Some try to use complex typographic imitations of the gestures they lean on in face-to-face meetings.) Perhaps we can set up remedial programs.

made_of_paradox February 10 2007, 15:43:09 UTC

You said some of what I was thinking in a more concise manner. Thank you.

I will, however, elaborate on some stuff:

Some people have problems with body language, either reading others, or conveying the "right" body language to others, and for those people, text-based communication is a heck of a lot better. And since they're wired to only really get the word content most of the time, they don't tend to project their crap onto other people's text. What we need is remedial programs for the folks who project their crap onto other people's text and react to what isn't actually there.

(The chili incident, based on the meatspace history between the people involved, is a special case; for people for which there is no meatspace history, or any meatspace history is brief and only comes about because of cyberspace history leading up to a planned meeting, the crap projection has no excuse.)

zarq February 10 2007, 20:36:10 UTC

What we need is remedial programs for the folks who project their crap onto other people's text and react to what isn't actually there.

I think those programs could be achieved by simply teaching folks who use the net to be polite, read carefully, analyze context and ask thoughtful questions before jumping to conclusions.

zarq February 10 2007, 20:32:12 UTC

I had to find this to figure out what you were talking about. Gee, the author looks familiar. :)

I don't think anything he's saying here is wrong, per se. Nor do I think he's dramatizing the depersonalizing effect that tech can have on modern society. The internet's lack of visible body language has spawned entire new compensatory ways (emotes, for example) for us to emphasize our notes and missives.

Thread 6

literaticat February 10 2007, 11:29:13 UTC

Well, if it would really shame me and my family for generations, of COURSE there's nobody that should see it.

Mine would more likely be rather stupid or embarrassing for minutes -- and then, I've got a couple hundred livejournal friends that can take a gander.

made_of_paradox February 10 2007, 15:47:43 UTC

Thing is, we don't know what will shame 3 generations from now.

We don't even know what the majority will consider shameful 20 years from now.

But there are some things that I wouldn't be comfortable with my meatspace friends and acquaintances knowing, or, more frequently and more to the point, some of them knowing. I don't give much of a flip as to whether or not most of my cyberspace friends know I went camping with pagans at a pagan event, but it might create tensions I'd rather not deal with with certain sets of meatspace acquaintances. So that, I'm a little leery of revealing what when.

The accidental running into a member of a group I hide things from isn't so bad, because if you're in that group and you were there, you sabotage yourself as much as you sabotage me if you reveal to the other people in that group that I was there. (I fully expect that to happen in the next 2 years, and since I've figured that out, I will not be any more upset at meeting one of them there than that person will.)

zarq February 10 2007, 20:46:03 UTC

Thing is, we don't know what will shame 3 generations from now.

Well, sure. I don't know. But I would think it logical that "Your Mom's Great Grandpa David had sex with his cocker spaniel all the time" would be high up there on the nuts-ometer. After all, we're a couple of millennia post-Caligula and his exploits still aren't exactly considered laudable. :)

...camping with pagans at a pagan event...

It's funny, I can't think of a single one of my family and friends who would blink twice at that. Now if I said "...camping with evangelicals at an evangelical event..." no doubt they'd all freak out. ;-)

made_of_paradox February 11 2007, 01:15:58 UTC

Yeah, well, it's the evangelicals in the family that would freak. And maybe some of the members of evangelical churches among my other acquaintances.

Thread 5

quixotickitten February 11 2007, 12:58:36 UTC

I tell you everything to the point of TMI... but you won't be privvy to the photos of that one time I went swimming with dolphins. No. Really. That's fucked up. It's a stupid test. I wouldn't tell anybody. Now, as for "hey, I kinda killed this hooker and I need help burying her body in the Nevada desert"... dude, you are SO on speed-dial.

siouxsyn February 12 2007, 01:08:22 UTC

Thing is with the naked photo test: The people I trust are the ones I don't want to see it.

Seriously, THAT farmyard picture I'd happily post everywhere if I was sure that my Mum would never see it. On the other hand, if somehow my family had driven me to be a true scary freak, perhaps they deserve the notoriety.