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This is something I think we as a society have not fully grappled with: > “I am pretty sure that we did not know that we humans much prefer personal attention

This is something I think we as a society have not fully grappled with: > “I am pretty sure that we did not know that we humans much prefer personal attention to personal privacy. Until we invented the technology of social media, we thought we naturally favored privacy over attention, but we were also wrong about that. We found out that when given a choice people prefer to reveal themselves to get personal attention rather than the obscurity of privacy.” I’ve been interested to read some contrarian thinking by Venkatesh Rao (Against Waldenponding <https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/against-waldenponding https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/against-waldenponding>) and others, about the ways this species-wide preference could/does benefit us, and how we might work with it rather than try to fight it.

glitchc 3y ago
I think it's easy to misread the data in this case. People fall into two camps, those who draw attention to themselves and those who prefer not to. The latter camp is under-represented online precisely because representation would mean drawing attention to themselves. So, counting just the online denizens introduces significant bias in the data.
smeej 3y ago
> A kind of selfish free-riding/tragedy of the commons: not learning to handle your share of the increased attention-management load required to keep the Global Social Computer in the Cloud (GSCITC) running effectively. It's much more sinister than that. In what I consider my best moments, I want to destroy the damn thing.
- velcrovan 3y ago
  You want to destroy...the Global Social Computer in the Cloud? If I understand you correctly, then just to clarify: the author disagrees with you, and considers you to be the selfish free-rider in that sentence.
  - smeej 3y ago
    Yes. I do not want the Global Social Computer in the Cloud to exist. I think it makes humans worse at being human.

glitchc 3y ago

I think it's easy to misread the data in this case. People fall into two camps, those who draw attention to themselves and those who prefer not to. The latter camp is under-represented online precisely because representation would mean drawing attention to themselves. So, counting just the online denizens introduces significant bias in the data.

smeej 3y ago

> A kind of selfish free-riding/tragedy of the commons: not learning to handle your share of the increased attention-management load required to keep the Global Social Computer in the Cloud (GSCITC) running effectively. It's much more sinister than that. In what I consider my best moments, I want to destroy the damn thing.

velcrovan 3y ago
You want to destroy...the Global Social Computer in the Cloud? If I understand you correctly, then just to clarify: the author disagrees with you, and considers you to be the selfish free-rider in that sentence.
- smeej 3y ago
  Yes. I do not want the Global Social Computer in the Cloud to exist. I think it makes humans worse at being human.