4 ms·
This essay might be deeper than it first suggests. My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social m
by jasode 11y ago
This essay might be deeper than it first suggests.
My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S.
My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you.
N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He can't go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence.
Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it".
I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- riskable 11y agoYeah, we need "This Week in Hacker News" like those "This Week in Science" and "This Week in Tech" summaries put out by Futurism.com... http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech
- blakesmith 11y agoI like the "Hacker News Newsletter", lets me ignore what goes on here most days, and catch up when I have dedicated time. http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ http://www.hackernewsletter.com/
- pingswept 11y agoFor all we can tell, you may have already done so.
- digi_owl 11y agoMakes me think of a recent talk at ccc.de about libusb, and how there was a "hostile takeover" in part fueled by the maintainer failing to push out new releases even though there was activity on the tracker (he wanted to make sure the new stuff worked before releasing, others saw it as the project stagnating).
- Analemma_ 11y ago> E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it". For a large percentage of my Facebook friends, if they were silently replaced with bots like this, I doubt I'd ever notice. Sigh.
- jobu 11y ago> My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Thanks for posting that! My interpretation was an admission of social media addiction, and an attempt at recovery. Sociomediapath is a bit different though. Instead of disconnecting completely from social media he's decided to disconnect emotionally. By acting like a sociopath on social media he can ignore what people post and stop it from consuming his time and his life.
- Florin_Andrei 11y agoHis article really needs to be read in the context of Neal's involvement with the Long Now Foundation and its mindset, and with some ideas about long term thinking that he's developed in his novel 'Anathem'. Look at the article from this perspective and it makes complete sense.
- enraged_camel 11y agoMaybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it". That's actually interesting. I'd expand it to other types of activity too, but then there's the risk of alienating your friends because your bot "liked" that they divorced, or something. :)