"All that once was directly lived has become mere representation." "Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behavior." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle
Interesting. The next book on my shelf to read is "Civilization of the Spectacle" by Mario Vargas Llosa. http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2013/january/la-civiliza...
The similarity is probably not a coincidence; Debord's book is the most significant text of the Situationist movement, which was quite influential in the New Left, particularly in the 60s.
You should check out the 'Ultimate Bill Hicks' DVD available. Amazon have got it at reduced price at the moment and it is excellent. I laughed and laughed.
Ironic that you literally threw an ad right in the parent's face through this simple comment.
That's not an ad, that's genuine interaction. The poster is not an actor(or someone trying to act a role), not an algorythm, not a corporation, not a marketer or salesperson. We must learn to discern between stuff if we want to consider ourselves "real-worlders" or whatever. If you get the concepts mixed up in your mind then your discernment gets distorted and you start conflating what's authentic and what's artificial. That's why it shits in your head.
I'm with Bill Hicks when it comes to advertising and marketing. I adblock. I pirate. I don't use Facebook or other social networking sites. I don't want advertising in my life. It's propaganda. It shits in your head. If there's anybody reading this who works in those industries: you thought Generation X was cynical?
Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.
As Nassim Taleb says, "the map is not the territory", just because you can say a lot of things are "kind of like a market", it does not, in any way, means that everything is a market, for example, higiene exists before market, nature exists before market, just because you can draw parallels it doesn't mean you've figured everything out. In the age of machines people wanted to think as if everything was like a machine, then in the age of systems they think everything is "just a system", then "everything is market".. This is faulty cognition, IMHO, in other words: fallacy.
My wife and I were just talking about this today, coincidentally. She follows a few people around the world who are artists or collectors on IG. She pointed out to me that when she started following some of them more than a year ago, they had a few hundred followers, and were posting general stuff, but which all felt heartfelt and 'in the moment'. I think 'genuine' was the word my wife used. Kids doing silly things.…
But that's not really the point of that episode. It dealt more with alienation and stigma associated with artificial social constructs that have real serious life-threatening consequences than undercover advertising.
Everyone seem to spot those ad-sponsored social network objects/constructs though so I don't know if things are that bad.
My wife and I were just talking about this today, coincidentally. She follows a few people around the world who are artists or collectors on IG. She pointed out to me that when she started following some of them more than a year ago, they had a few hundred followers, and were posting general stuff, but which all felt heartfelt and 'in the moment'. I think 'genuine' was the word my wife used. Kids doing silly things.…
The more I read about that, the more I want to start an instagram of a stereotypical loser.
>The more I read about that, the more I want to start an instagram of a stereotypical loser. It wouldn't be popular. People crave escapism. The very fact that you're satirising exactly that is what defeats the purpose.
I think it would. I'm sure many people would relate to it. /r/me_irl has a success of its own.
There are many many people who feel guilty because their life could be more successful. It's a very hard thing to unroot out of your mind, but laughing about it is a huge relief.
Was just thinking about this recently as I started following a few people. We are increasingly living in a world of fiction. Previously it was mainly fed through television. You'd grow up on television series, and as a young man/woman you'd try to be cool like them, dress like them, talk like them. You build your world view around "influential" portrayals. Nowadays, we haven't freed ourself from media controlled tele…
I don't think that we are increasingly living in a world of fiction. We always have. It is human. Kids believe in Santa Claus, adults believe Saddam has weapons of mass destruction. Some believe in Mohammed, Jesus, Jahwe, or Dharma. Some believe they will become rich in Silicon Valley, others on Wallstreet. Some believe in articles from mainstream media, some don't. Many people have dreams for their future, which is…
This is the sole reason why I liked snapchat. But now snapchat is getting so popular, the ads are being forced in my face. I'm gonna a probably jump ship to something less invasive.
In one way, this is sponsorship taken to a micro level. And sponsorship is fine - and usually open, for the benefit of both parties. But if I open a random influencer agency website, I can read something like this: "Influencers drive trust". The message here seems to be: Yes, trust is super valuable - and now the price is finally dropping! But is it really?
It's a weird middle-ground. I myself constantly ask people for their recommendations on books and such. I trust them and act upon their suggestions. The only difference is that influencers are paid to suggest, and sometimes this leads to low-quality products being touted by low-quality influencers appearing in your feed. Definitely bad. DHH suggested a book in an interview with Tim Ferriss[0]. I read what DHH says of…
It doesn't just sometimes lead to lower quality recommendations. It ALWAYS does due to the nature of how it works.
When someone is financially incentivized to push something, but discloses that, you have to take it with a grain of salt. When they don't disclose it, you can't trust a word out of their mouth. Full stop.
In one way, this is sponsorship taken to a micro level. And sponsorship is fine - and usually open, for the benefit of both parties. But if I open a random influencer agency website, I can read something like this: "Influencers drive trust". The message here seems to be: Yes, trust is super valuable - and now the price is finally dropping! But is it really?
It's a weird middle-ground. I myself constantly ask people for their recommendations on books and such. I trust them and act upon their suggestions. The only difference is that influencers are paid to suggest, and sometimes this leads to low-quality products being touted by low-quality influencers appearing in your feed. Definitely bad. DHH suggested a book in an interview with Tim Ferriss[0]. I read what DHH says of…
It doesn't just sometimes lead to lower quality recommendations. It ALWAYS does due to the nature of how it works.
When someone is financially incentivized to push something, but discloses that, you have to take it with a grain of salt. When they don't disclose it, you can't trust a word out of their mouth. Full stop.