I just came here after reading this (highly relevant) ZenPencils of Marc Maron's "Social Media Generation".
Very impactful one-two punch seeing both of these back to back.
http://zenpencils.com/comic/129-marc-maron-the-social-media-...
What I would have written
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: What I would have written
#12"I sit on the couch watching whatever is on TV. It's not very entertaining but it's something to do, and after a while you get used to it. And yet I see no solution to this problem."
What are we, automatons? Farm animals?
This isn't rocket science, if you want to stop being a hack then stop being a hack. You have a brain, you have a developed intellect, if you have sufficient introspection to realize you're doing something you don't want to be doing then maybe try not doing that thing. I have a hard time believing that twitter is more addictive than alcohol or heroin or even television.
Nothing's forcing you to be a hack other than your own vanity. And there's nothing intrinsically superior to being addicted to seeking bite-sized chunks of personal validation through twitter than there is in seeking feelings of comfort, camaraderie, and friendship through television viewership. Yet if someone wrote about the perils of being a couch potato and the difficulty of stopping we'd just laugh at them and move on.
Re: What I would have written
#13Tweets provide a lot of efficiency. "Tweets aren't great because the compress otherwise complex ideas". A decent summary of your essay and tweet-able. Point made in 5 seconds of reading. Yes you don't get the full emersion but thats exactly why both mediums still exist. The tweet saves time and consequently gets a wider audience.
It often takes multiple restatements of an argument to get it to sink in, because different readers are affected differently by any given set of words.
It often takes an essay (or a book, or a series of books, or a body of literature) to fully map out the consequences of what initially seems simple.
It can be difficult to truly impress the emotional texture of a concept in 140 characters without relying on cheap appeals -- which obscure the actual concept.
Here's the tweetable problem with trying to convey deep concepts on twitter:
Easy come, easy go.Re: What I would have written
#14'and every fucking thing I think about, I also think, “How could I fit that into a tweet that lots of people would favorite or retweet?”' That, as I see it, is the problem – not twitter or 140char limits or any of the other stuff Dustin raises, it's the desire for external validation (and I can't help but imagine him furiously clicking reload on his own blog post to see how fast his Kudos score is climbing…) My takea…
Picasso also made quick napkin sketchings for passersby. So yeah, I could imagine him painting "triffles for immediate social media validation"... he probably would've enjoyed the exposure. But that didn't prevent him from undertaking more meaningful / involved endeavors too.
Re: What I would have written
#15"And yet I see no solution to this problem."
The solution is to not solely crave affirmation from others. Be comfortable with yourself, and try to live a life that enriches yourself, and those around you. If the parts of that that you share happen to enrich those you come in contact with, great ... but the internet-celebrity that Twitter and other social-platforms encourages (how many followers, how many retweets, how many favorites, how many likes, etc.) is fleeting at-best.
Re: What I would have written
#16"And yet I see no solution to this problem." Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such; forcing moderation on himself, or even complete detachment (the cold turkey approach). Of course, being involved in technology means Dustin is essentially an alcoholic working at a brewery, so disengagement may be especially difficult. But to…
>*"Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such;"
The issue I see with this is that it takes the way we use technology for granted. It's just like saying "that stuff is here to stay, learn to deal with it".
Which it is true in practice, but doesn't have to be true necessarily.
We could have opted as a society to not tolerate those kind of addictive (and mind-crushing) applications of technology, instead of celebrating them.
(The same way we have done with smoking, not just the banning in public places, but the whole attitude towards it).
Re: What I would have written
#17"And yet I see no solution to this problem." Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such; forcing moderation on himself, or even complete detachment (the cold turkey approach). Of course, being involved in technology means Dustin is essentially an alcoholic working at a brewery, so disengagement may be especially difficult. But to…
>*"Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such;" The issue I see with this is that it takes the way we use technology for granted. It's just like saying "that stuff is here to stay, learn to deal with it". Which it is true in practice, but doesn't have to be true necessarily. We could have opted as a society to not tolerate those k…
While I agree that naive technological utopianism is worrisome and we need to be discussing the social/psychological impact of our inventions, I can't say I would draw an equivalence between Twitter and something like cigarettes... if used in moderation, I think services like Twitter can be very useful to some people. We do need to weigh the costs vs. the benefits, but just as blind acceptance is bad, so is blind rejection... having this discussion is a good start though.
Re: What I would have written
#18"And yet I see no solution to this problem." Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such; forcing moderation on himself, or even complete detachment (the cold turkey approach). Of course, being involved in technology means Dustin is essentially an alcoholic working at a brewery, so disengagement may be especially difficult. But to…
>*"Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such;" The issue I see with this is that it takes the way we use technology for granted. It's just like saying "that stuff is here to stay, learn to deal with it". Which it is true in practice, but doesn't have to be true necessarily. We could have opted as a society to not tolerate those k…
Placing the emphasis on society, I believe, dilutes the great importance of the decisions of the individual. In life you should take responsibility for your own actions first. The question is more "Is twitter a social problem?" or "Is my twitter use a problem?".
Re: What I would have written
#19'and every fucking thing I think about, I also think, “How could I fit that into a tweet that lots of people would favorite or retweet?”' That, as I see it, is the problem – not twitter or 140char limits or any of the other stuff Dustin raises, it's the desire for external validation (and I can't help but imagine him furiously clicking reload on his own blog post to see how fast his Kudos score is climbing…) My takea…
I liked what comedian Louis CK had to say on this subject recently:
http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone
My experience is that writing long, insightful pieces of prose is just hard, miserable work. People do it because they feel compelled to, not because it's a fun way to relax. So it's easy to procrastinate or avoid it, especially if there aren't any external demands or deadlines to meet.
Re: What I would have written
#20'and every fucking thing I think about, I also think, “How could I fit that into a tweet that lots of people would favorite or retweet?”' That, as I see it, is the problem – not twitter or 140char limits or any of the other stuff Dustin raises, it's the desire for external validation (and I can't help but imagine him furiously clicking reload on his own blog post to see how fast his Kudos score is climbing…) My takea…
I liked what comedian Louis CK had to say on this subject recently: http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone My experience is that writing long, insightful pieces of prose is just hard, miserable work. People do it because they feel compelled to, not because it's a fun way to relax. So it's easy to procrastinate or avoid it, especially if there aren't any external demands or deadlines to meet.
I dunno, it's fun for me -- I find writing a long essay to be contemplative, meditative. It requires you to challenge your own thinking, which is both interesting and a little bit scary.
But I'm willing to believe I'm an outlier in this regard.