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Marshall McLuhan, the media theorist, pointed out the hazards of "Peer to peer electronic media" in the 1960s with uncanny accuracy. Calling someone a luddite w

Marshall McLuhan, the media theorist, pointed out the hazards of "Peer to peer electronic media" in the 1960s with uncanny accuracy. Calling someone a luddite when your own views are as anachronistic as they are is ridiculous. And stop flattering yourself by calling social media 'tech'. Every industry uses technology, calling it 'tech' doesn't distinguish it in any way. Social media is a medium for a exchange like a book, or a campfire. Different media have different effects on how information is conveyed and how the world is understood by the users of said medium. Social media has been overwhelmingly influential to the way people communicate and understand one another and denying any questioning of it's effects outright is telling. Your tribalism is showing. Marshall McLuhan warned you about this, you should have listened.

halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
This comment is as equally polarizing as GP, just in the opposite direction. You can have social media be tech, have some net effect on society (whether that's good or bad is literally being debated right now) and be addictive. As with anything in life, there is nuance. Social media isn't a great satan and it isn't god's gift, it's somewhere in between.
- Fricken 6y ago
  Well yes, case in point, social media has a tribalizing effect on people. I don't disagree that comments on the internet tend to be polarizing. I wouldn't have commented at all if it wasn't to disagree with somebody, that's normal in these parts. I wonder what happens when most of the population is relying on such a medium for their understanding of the world beyond what they can see and touch? I don't think me setting a good example here on HN is going to have much effect against the basic human impulses that social media selects for.
slothtrop 6y ago
> stop flattering yourself What does this even mean? Why would it be flattering himself?
- bagacrap 6y ago
  The implication is that the poster works on social media.

halfmatthalfcat 6y ago

This comment is as equally polarizing as GP, just in the opposite direction. You can have social media be tech, have some net effect on society (whether that's good or bad is literally being debated right now) and be addictive. As with anything in life, there is nuance. Social media isn't a great satan and it isn't god's gift, it's somewhere in between.

Fricken 6y ago
Well yes, case in point, social media has a tribalizing effect on people. I don't disagree that comments on the internet tend to be polarizing. I wouldn't have commented at all if it wasn't to disagree with somebody, that's normal in these parts. I wonder what happens when most of the population is relying on such a medium for their understanding of the world beyond what they can see and touch? I don't think me setting a good example here on HN is going to have much effect against the basic human impulses that social media selects for.

slothtrop 6y ago

> stop flattering yourself What does this even mean? Why would it be flattering himself?

bagacrap 6y ago
The implication is that the poster works on social media.