tantek.com

Discomfort with a culture of performing reinforced by Facebook, Twitter, etc. thenewinquiry.com/essays/google-alert-for-the-soul/
#self #identity

Recommended soundtrack while reading the article:
Clubbed to Death by Rob Dougan from The Matrix:
http://youtu.be/_YCGtT_FRYg


My one biggest problem with the article is the reductive use of the term "data" in the phrase "data self". It's imprecise, inaccurate, and does a disservice to the underlying concept that the author is describing. Data lacks meaning and the meaning the concept expresses.

A better naming & framing would be: the "cyber self".

Cyber, as in virtual, online, and today, on the web.

And cyber as in cybernetics (enwp.org/cybernetics).


A lot more in this article. Will have to re-read it after
s/data self/cyber self
and see if I can blog something more actionable.


For now I'm left with questions.

You found this likely through one of the very systems that is being questioned.

What is to be done?

Can we simply unplug?

Or are we, and those we love, "so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system"[1] that we are trapped?

Can we use these systems to fight the dopamine culture of micro-attention seeking they've been designed to promote and reinforce?

Or is there hope in building independent alternatives and using the silos merely as distribution mechanisms for our critiques, planting seeds of doubt inside their walled gardens?

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes?item=qt0324247

on (ttk.me t4T42) using BBEdit