Dumping incoherent thoughts here (not even in full sentences, so beware~) as a draft before I write something more fully formed. Or maybe not.
- It’s been a long-running thought/unspoken personal philosophy, but the thought seed that truly led to a sprout is Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism book, aka one of my life-changing reads for 2021. After reading this book and giving very actionable starting points in beginning a ‘digitally minimal’ practice, I have fully realized the meaning (or lack thereof) of posting on social media for myself, that it’s made me lose the itch to post about any event (or even uhh non-event) in my life.
- My reflecting for the past few months on this change in behavior has led me to revisit the stuff I learned in college: Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation, McLuhan’s Medium is the Message.
- Baudrillard on simulacrum, via Wikipedia: “According to Baudrillard, what the simulacrum copies either had no original or no longer has an original, since a simulacrum signifies something it is not, and therefore leaves the original unable to be located. Where Plato saw two types of representation—faithful and intentionally distorted (simulacrum)—Baudrillard sees four: (1) basic reflection of reality; (2) perversion of reality; (3) pretence of reality (where there is no model); and (4) simulacrum, which 'bears no relation to any reality whatsoever'.”
- Seeing how people think in social media formats, i.e. travel itineraries being driven by how they can take event/location photos that can be framed as a square perfect for Instagram, ‘this life event can be a Reel’, taking 3 images to complete an Instagram grid visual, etc -- basically life is now viewed through these formats, consciously and subconsciously
- Jack Cheng’s OG post from 2012 still rings true (albeit with a sad disclaimer from 2016, which is already a while back; I badly wish I could write like him) - www.jackcheng.com/the-slow-web/
- Jack Cheng’s definition (emphasis mine): “What is the Fast Web? It’s the out of control web. The oh my god there’s so much stuff and I can’t possibly keep up web. It’s the spend two dozen times a day checking web. The in one end out the other web. The web designed to appeal to the basest of our intellectual palettes, the salt, sugar and fat of online content web. It’s the scale hard and fast web. The create a destination for billions of people web. The you have two hundred twenty six new updates web. Keep up or be lost. Click me. Like me. Tweet me. Share me. The Fast Web demands that you do things and do them now. The Fast Web is a cruel wonderland of shiny shiny things.”
- Craig Mod’s stand on finding edges and how technology provides an infinitude of stuff~ that we literally have no (tangible) hold of digital platforms. (Partly related link: https://craigmod.com/essays/unbinding/)
- Even if the use of numeric pagination as a design component on websites feels old/dated, I personally still like it, he he.
- In relation to Craig Mod’s thought on ‘edges’ (emphasis mine): “When you sit down with a book, you understand the parameters of engagement. You know how long the book is. The book isn’t changing as you read it. It’s a solid, immutable thing. You and the book are on equal terms in many ways, as least from a physics point of view. You know what’s going to happen, and the book abides by its implicit contract, which is to be a book. However, in digital-land many spaces (apps, games) quickly turn into slithering creatures beneath your feet. You never know where you stand. Their worlds are optimized to pull you back in for one more minute, one more click. Over and over. Cascades of chemical reactions in your noggin’ tell you to keep going, just one more hit; I feel this persona of the addict very strongly when I am online or using certain apps or devices.” - from https://craigmod.com/essays/offscreen_interview/
- Still of Craig Mod: Stab a Book, the Book Won't Die: On the resilience of books in the face of apps, attention monsters, and an ad-driven online economy
- Discuss: the design of livestream chats/comments~ (If comments are made with the intent to be read, but they’re delivered in a way that makes it ineffective for the reader to go through them, is this the appropriate interactive execution? How might we...)
- Today’s definition of productivity sometimes means having posted something online. Because someone’s feedback, aka a comment or a reaction, gives a sense of fulfilment that is tied to the act of posting, hence feeling like you’ve ‘done something’, when you really haven’t. Yeouch.
- If we were to step back and assess how we want the Internet to work for us, what role/s should we assign to it?
- One of the main triggers why this section of my site exists and why it lacks form, as intended: https://joelhooks.com/digital-garden
- Phil Ensminger, back in 2015, has also compiled a list on Medium: My Thoughts on the Slow Web, includes the mention of main guy Tristan Harris
- Trying badly to recall who shared this thought on the term ‘content creator’ being weird, as it doesn’t speak of the quality of content (or what it is), but just content being...content. ‘Content’ - like a thing that fills up space. ‘Content’ - as long as there’s something, should be ok. ‘Content’ - because without it, our platforms are hollow. ‘Content’ - feels like it focuses on the item for consumption, that what the thing is. Kind of like junk food, aka empty calories. Which is why sometimes, for ‘content creators’, releasing something--ANYTHING--can feel enough, because that’s already ‘content’ that fills up. (Filmmakers don’t call themselves content creators...or do they?? They make films!)
- Platforms like Instagram or Twitter, inasmuch as they’re used to journal or act as a scrapbook by most people, don’t work best for old posts. They’re optimized for Now things, because the engagement of posts today are what matters. The recency of things matter because freshness matters, it’s as if our lives/posts are seen as news. (And tbh I’ve tried to scroll back through 1,000+ posts on my Instagram, and it is not optimized to serve your old stuff, believe me. It becomes buggy at some point. Again, it works best for your Now posts, not so much old posts you deliberately choose to revisit.)
Last updated: 21 April 2022