Don't shoot the messenger... There is not much difference between generic social media critique, AI angst and, gnerally, making tools responsible for the actions of their owners. If you cant stand what social media does to you, stop. But please, stop projecting your own inabilities on others. Just because a certain type of person feels unhealthy using a particular tool doesnt say how it is going to influence others... If for one met my gf on FB, and I am still grateful for the service at the time. Does that mean I unconditionally like FB, no. One thing I've learnt though is that whenever someone tries to educate me about the "truth", I know they are likely full of shit.
Ego Death
81–90 of 122 posts
Re: Ego Death
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I’m pretty tired of people who have a problem with social media assuming that that means everyone has a problem with social media - or that social media itself is a problem. If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t do it. Stop projecting and start taking responsibility for yourself. Self worth comes from yourself . If you’re getting your worth from an outside source, that’s external validation, which is a wholly u…
Would you apply the same judgement to drugs? I'm not saying I disagree with you, or the author for that matter, but I can't quite entirely tease apart why one would apply to the one and not the other.
I am perfectly capable of functioning on one or two 8-balls a day, I could quit at any time.
Re: Ego Death
#83I don't know how to say this constructively, but this post reads like it is written with a deep smugness. It feels very "ego-y". It feels like the author has glommed onto a real concept (denying the ego) but instead used it to get out of the competitive marketplace of social media, and instead take it to their blog where the competition is invisible and lesser. It even basically finishes with "tune in later to keep i…
"no-ego ego" strikes again
Re: Ego Death
#84I don't know how to say this constructively, but this post reads like it is written with a deep smugness. It feels very "ego-y". It feels like the author has glommed onto a real concept (denying the ego) but instead used it to get out of the competitive marketplace of social media, and instead take it to their blog where the competition is invisible and lesser. It even basically finishes with "tune in later to keep i…
[deleted]
Re: Ego Death
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Surely you must willingly follow people who post this kind of content, or inflammatory tags? Because I think it's the only way this content can reach you. Really? Right now, if I go to mastodon.social, I'm redirected to https://mastodon.social/explore and 3 out of the first 4 posts are people fulminating about "red states", "anti-racism" and "Twitter" respectively.
Similarly, if you visit certain instances you will be greeted with the polar opposite of that. The inhabitants of some instances are more political than others. If you actually create an account you will be able to pick and choose whose posts you want to see. The strictly chronological approach seems to work fairly well as long as you only follow a few people but it doesn't scale very well.
> The inhabitants of some instances are more political than others.
Which ones are less political? I went to a supposedly global and tech focused instance only to find US political slogans in the "About" page itself.
> If you actually create an account you will be able to pick and choose whose posts you want to see.
That didn't work on Twitter and I doubt it'll work on Mastodon. Neither of them have a way of categorising posts into topics. There's no way to follow someone to get updates about their work without being subjected to whatever political digressions they chose to share.
Re: Ego Death
#86I don't know how to say this constructively, but this post reads like it is written with a deep smugness. It feels very "ego-y". It feels like the author has glommed onto a real concept (denying the ego) but instead used it to get out of the competitive marketplace of social media, and instead take it to their blog where the competition is invisible and lesser. It even basically finishes with "tune in later to keep i…
You're right, there nothing much there but excessive, if muted, self-grandiosement and hypocritical judgement. Eg, the first sentence: > As I begin settling into a new flow of my life I find myself finding tremendous sanctuary and peace with myself. 2 * "I", 2 * "myself", 1 * "my life" and a claim that this person has found "tremendous sanctuary and peace". > I notice this internal tranquility seems to be related to…
The ego has a million-and-one (and, always one more) ways to subtly cling to anyone trying to rid themselves of it.
As far as I can tell, from observations in myself, and of others, the ego is only something you can manage. You can experience moments of freedom (most reliably through psychedelics in my experience) that give you a taste of something beautiful and relieving. But the ego is just sleeping.
The tentacles of the ego are attached to the very nature of your life itself - to very basic metabolic processes. It’ll always be with you - your existence and your ego’s existence are hopelessly intertwined.
Re: Ego Death
#87I wonder who is going to pay for that domain and web hosting now.
Re: Ego Death
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Surely you must willingly follow people who post this kind of content, or inflammatory tags? Because I think it's the only way this content can reach you. Really? Right now, if I go to mastodon.social, I'm redirected to https://mastodon.social/explore and 3 out of the first 4 posts are people fulminating about "red states", "anti-racism" and "Twitter" respectively.
Similarly, if you visit certain instances you will be greeted with the polar opposite of that. The inhabitants of some instances are more political than others. If you actually create an account you will be able to pick and choose whose posts you want to see. The strictly chronological approach seems to work fairly well as long as you only follow a few people but it doesn't scale very well.
> The inhabitants of some instances are more political than others.
The founding generation of Mastodon roughly overlaps with people who believe that everything in life is political. Moreover, that group roughly overlaps with people who believe that attempting to escape strident political rhetoric is itself a political action directed against whatever groups they are passionate about. Founding-generation Mastodon users have expressed concern about the Mastodon ecosystem eventually evolving out of the kind of concerns and way of writing that they have, to something more representative of the broader public.
Re: Ego Death
#89> We aren’t using social media to drive action. We are using it to farm a false sense of worth. To cast stones at anyone who foolishly stumbles into the latest virtue-trap. Yeah, it feels like most of social media is now shit-flinging and calling the "outside group" stupid so one can feel "At least I'm not a stupid horrible person like that idiot!". I notice on Instagram you can "like" comments but not dislike them,…
Social media simply amplifies what is already common among human beings. One way it seems to do this is by flattening and legitimizing impropriety. Normal societies are "chunky", that is, you have niches and enclaves and varying distance unified in some increasingly "thin" manner. This enables various kinds of relationships to flourish (think of how marriage creates a special space for the couple, and then another sp…
Well said.
Re: Ego Death
#90> Stay tuned for more. :(
That's an incredibly ironic way to end this blog post.