I didn't say it, he did.

[pantryslut]

"The dirty little conceit of so many social-media and -networking sites [...] is that they disguise self-publicity and oversharing as chatting with friends and uploading for storage. By turning private information into public fodder, these sites eliminate the difference between communication and publishing."


(http://nymag.com/news/media/47958/index.html)

And yes, I realize the irony of posting this particular quote on...LiveJournal.

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

these sites eliminate the difference between communication and publishing

Not sure that's a bad thing.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It is if you're not aware of it happening -- for example, you're engaging in one-way communication while thinking it's a more reciprocal sort of thing. I definitely, personally, do not like the effect this has on people.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see that.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

(That is, not "Yeah, I can see that you don't like that," but "Yeah, I agree with that assessment.")

subcultures, private & public

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

A lot of what we talk about is "public" in the sense that anybody could come on by and join the conversation, but it's subcultural enough that this doesn't happen. That gives it something of a private feel, and people may think it's private like a private club.

Seems to me that a lot of Internet tempests are when subcultures collide. Rachel Moss is an example -- an outsider visited a subculture and Did Not Approve. Outsider then complained in another subcultural spot. Two cultures collide and whammo.

On Livejournal I just assume what I say is public unless it's friends-locked. I have a buddy who says he doesn't even trust friends-locked and assumes everything he says is public.

microfame

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I liked the article, but it didn't talk about the particular kind of microfame that some of us may be flirting with. We want to be Public Intellectuals, Pundits, people whose views count and have influence over the public discourse. Or we might want to be Experts, respected by academics who even get paid for that stuff.

I don't have any interest in going to a party with the people on the cover of People, but I do have fantasies of being intellectually important.