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Minimum Viable Self

kneelingbus.substack.com

21–30 of 80 posts

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#21
post #11

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

You could be missing out on appreciating what you already have now in the quest for that hypothetical thing that you could be missing out on.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#22

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

Facebook became popular because it was possibly to just observe and not be forced to participate. Everything before Facebook told you when and who viewed your content, Facebook didn't and explicitly banned any sort of apps tat could log who saw your stuff.

So forcing participation sounds good in theory but in practice people love to lurk and hates being seen, even those who produce content. And since Facebook every new social media phenomena like Twitter or Instagram also doesn't show you who looked around at your stuff, so allowing non participation is a must in any social media today for it to become popular.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#23
post #17

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

> “Nobody is confusing the act for the real person except the young and naive.” Aren’t many people (most?) who use social media young and naive?

Mostly older people use Facebook and real identities. I don't have a lot of experience with mediums that young people use like Instagram and Tik Tok, but I'm under the impression that people goof around and try to outdo each other. Even young people use it in a sophisticated way. I was thinking of the young and naive, like people teens who first get on it (but they learn fast.)

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#24

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

> “‘No Spectators’ is a long-standing saying on Playa. You are encouraged to fully participate. It’s all about being there, being fully present, and not just observing. Two of the ten principles of Burning Man are radical participation and radical inclusivity, meaning that there are no outsiders. Everyone is part of the experience.”

That sounds like shit the big head on the screen would yell at Winston in the opening chapter of an updated 1984.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#25

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

I appreciate that this is a novel non-knee-jerk take on social media but not sure I fully buy it, mostly because the way commerce/the algorithm modifies this “stage” in real time. Art/performance always has and will have some commercial aspect, but it’s usually appears before and after but not during. Maybe the closest analog would be the improvising comedian that takes the set into a direction depending on what peop…

Thank you and yes, the algorithm is a problem. I may have a funny thing that one set of friends like, but the algorithm shows it to another set who don't get it because it wasn't for them, but because they logged on first or some other algorithmic input they get it and the others don't. Maybe FB should let me input hints on who I intend it for.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#26

The term “meatspace” has always bothered me. It’s “real life.” The internet is the illusion.

The internet is not an illusion. The internet exists of electrons and photons, both of which has mass.

The internet in it’s current form is physical and it’s she’ll (the servers, cables … intestines) can be touched.

The internet is not more an illusion then language, math or society itself.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#27

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

Facebook became popular because it was possibly to just observe and not be forced to participate. Everything before Facebook told you when and who viewed your content, Facebook didn't and explicitly banned any sort of apps tat could log who saw your stuff. So forcing participation sounds good in theory but in practice people love to lurk and hates being seen, even those who produce content. And since Facebook every n…

> since Facebook every new social media phenomena like Twitter or Instagram also doesn't show you who looked around at your stuff,

LinkedIn seems to.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that this is a novel non-knee-jerk take on social media but not sure I fully buy it, mostly because the way commerce/the algorithm modifies this “stage” in real time. Art/performance always has and will have some commercial aspect, but it’s usually appears before and after but not during. Maybe the closest analog would be the improvising comedian that takes the set into a direction depending on what peop…

Thank you and yes, the algorithm is a problem. I may have a funny thing that one set of friends like, but the algorithm shows it to another set who don't get it because it wasn't for them, but because they logged on first or some other algorithmic input they get it and the others don't. Maybe FB should let me input hints on who I intend it for.

> Maybe FB should let me input hints on who I intend it for.

They do, but you have to pay for the privilege.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#29

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

Facebook became popular because it was possibly to just observe and not be forced to participate. Everything before Facebook told you when and who viewed your content, Facebook didn't and explicitly banned any sort of apps tat could log who saw your stuff. So forcing participation sounds good in theory but in practice people love to lurk and hates being seen, even those who produce content. And since Facebook every n…

MySpace, LiveJournal,... none of these had surveillance built in. I'm not sure what "Everything before Facebook" you are referring to, but I can't think of a single system I used that let me surveil my readers.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#30
post #19

The term “meatspace” has always bothered me. It’s “real life.” The internet is the illusion.

I mean, you're a real person that wrote this, and I'm a real person replying to you. No one of this is not real. The image that I might make of you in my head and that you might make of me in your head are illusions, but so are the ones we make in "meatspace". Feel free to call the internet "siliconspace" or something like that, but it won't make it not real.

Sure, it's real. Real electricity; cause and effect of pressing our fingers down and moving these tiny invisible machines.

I would love to express the emotion that I feel when I read the term "meatspace," but for all the machinations that I can dream up, I fear that the meaning would be lost as each of my futile attempts travel by wire.

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