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I assume the NYT headline was a reference to a few years back when Page was talking about how great Glass was and by way of comparison described looking down at
by mrmcd 11y ago
I assume the NYT headline was a reference to a few years back when Page was talking about how great Glass was and by way of comparison described looking down at a phone screen as "emasculating".
I assume he (Page) was just meant that using a phone a lot felt awkward and took your attention away from the rest of the world around you, but made a poor word choice while improvising in front of an audience. The tech press had a little tisk tisk field day about though, especially since this was well past the point where Glass was looking like a silly boondogle.
In most newspapers though, someone besides the author writes the headline for an article, so I'm assuming whoever wrote this one for the NYT thought they were being clever here in referencing that faux pas.
edit: Just checked it was actually Brin who said the emasculating thing, so who the fuck knows what the headline writer was thinking. Maybe they remembered wrong too.
- psbp 11y agoIf only tech blogs had access to a dictionary.
- theoh 11y agoThe idea that "emasculate" was a bad word choice was a foolish media bandwagon. The secondary meaning of emasculate is "make weaker or less effective" and holding a fragile and valuable object does do that...
- TillE 11y agoThat's not how language works. Words have implications and subtleties that go beyond a straightforward reading of a dictionary definition. Especially with that definition, you really can't escape the roots. It's just a metaphorical twist on the word.
- theoh 11y agoMany people think "a series of tubes" was a hilariously bad analogy for the internet too. It has always seemed reasonable to me, and some others. [1] Maybe I'm just too interested in actual communication rather than mockery. But "Be liberal in what you accept" etc. [1] https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/taking-stevens-seriously/ https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/taking-stevens-ser...
- astral303 11y agoThe difference is that "series of tubes" is merely wrong/silly/awkward/clueless, whereas "emasculation" reinforces decades of toxic masculinity, which is a societal ill.
- wavefunction 11y agoWell, it's a series, but also a collection at the same time, right? Unless you conceive of the internet as one long line of tubes connected one to the other (series) rather than a number of tubes, some connected in series but others running in parallel. That's the subtlety of language the parent was referring to.
- theoh 11y agoActually the original context is something like "the internet is not a big truck, it's a series of tubes" which makes it clear that he was referring to what was involved in sending data down a single connection. It would be absurd to infer that Stevens thought real-world truck haulage consisted of "one big truck" rather than a fleet.
- oldmanjay 11y agoMaybe the author felt emasculated by the experience, and didn't realize that modern humanity demands attention to all manner of bizarre sensitivities because of a rabid desire to take offense where none is intended. I do have to admit, I stereotype reporters as absolutely swimming in that particular lagoon, so it's unlikely, but hey, you got to speculate too.
- wavefunction 11y ago"He treated me as if I were a not-man/woman!" Now who could take offense at that?!? Not just the PC, but perhaps others as well. It was a poor and awkward choice of words.
- oldmanjay 11y agoI guess if you get to a) impose your own definitions and b) judge how others feel based on those self-definitions, then you've reached the "crawling up your own ass" stage of looking for ways to be offended. Congratulations! You're ready to join a variety of Twitter and tumblr groups who spend so much time in their own asses they believe such things to be important.