Sep 27 2010
Framing – You Are Not a Gadget
On page 21 of “You Are Not a Gadget,” Jaron Lanier states some ways he believes modern Internet users should strive to be considered, ” a person instead of a source of fragments to be exploited by others.” He goes on to explain that there are many dangers in letting computers becomes smarter. He believes in some ways, such as when windows auto corrects something that the user did not want corrected. Everyone has had this happen to them, and it’s not only annoying, but as Lanier points out, actually more time consuming.
My question is – What is better? The old way of having to do everything for yourself? Or this new way we’ve become accustomed to? Obviously every way has it’s pros and cons but are we better for all of the technology that we have?
On page 68 Lanier discusses “personal reductionism,” on Facebook. He talks about how people choose their statuses and which information they put into to represent themselves. He argues that this makes the info less personal because it essentially being put into a system and organized based on “common interests.”
My question is, in a world where online dating has become such a popular phenomenon, how does this work? Answers on dating websites seem to me to be just as impersonal. In this regard, according to Lanier they should fail miserably, but they seem to be pretty successful. How is that?
In that same section Lanier discusses how Facebook has become a somewhat fake world for the “Facebook Generation,” to hide behind. Their words, emotions and relationships are all identified by “statuses.”
My question on this is, are these feeling and emotions any less dynamic of important than past generations? What I mean is, are teens feeling becoming more mainstreamed to fit into a little box on their Facebook page? Or are they just as they’ve always been dynamic and meaningful, just shared differently than before?
September 29th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Let’s see if I can answer some of these questions. For your first question you ask if it is better to have computers do everything or do everything ourselves. I think what Lanier was trying to get at is computers were designed to be tools to be used by humans. However, as he indicates further in the book, people are devaluing themselves to make it seem like computers are better than us. What he is calling for is a return to mentality of computers being tools for humans; to remember that a human created the computer and the programing.
You ask why online dating works when people do not put much personal information on the internet and if people are being reduced to “status” on the internet. To the dating question, it is possible that those who are successful have taken the time to truly reveal themselves to potential mates. However, another reason for a lack of personal information is the fear of having one’s identity stolen or being stalked. When we put our information online it is a risk we all take even if we trust those who have access to our info.
Regarding Facebook statuses, compared to myspace there is less for a user to customize and express themselves with. However, there is something about Facebook that has made it the dominant social media site and therefore people are willing to settle for expressing themselves with status updates.