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Social networks, though, have since colonized the web for television's values. From Facebook to Instagram, the medium refocuses our attention on videos and images, rewarding emotional appeals—'like' buttons—over rational ones. Instead of a quest for knowledge, it engages us in an endless zest for instant approval from an audience, for which we are constantly but unconsciouly performing. (It's telling that, while Google began life as a PhD thesis, Facebook started as a tool to judge classmates' appearances.) It reduces our curiosity by showing us exactly what we already want and think, based on our profiles and preferences. Enlightenment's motto of 'Dare to know' has become 'Dare not to care to know.'
It is a development that further proves the words of French philosopher Guy Debord, who wrote that, if pre-capitalism was about 'being', and capitalism about 'having', in late-capitalism what matters is only 'appearing'—appearing rich, happy, thoughtful, cool and cosmopolitan. It's hard to open Instagram without being struck by the accuracy of his diagnosis.
Now the challenge is to save Wikipedia and its promise of a free and open collection of all human knowledge amid the conquest of new and old television—how to collect and preserve knowledge when nobody cares to know. Television has even infected Wikipedia itself—today many of the most popular entries tend to revolve around television series or their cast.
This doesn't mean it is time to give up. But we need to understand that the decline of the web and thereby of the Wikipedia is part of a much larger civilizational shift which has just started to unfold.
Wired: How Social Media Endangers Knowledge
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday October 30 2017, @04:24PM (5 children)
Humans, on average, try to be efficient about storing knowledge. As in, most people have basically this set of reactions to new information:
1. This contradicts my previously held beliefs. This must be nonsense! Whoever told me this information is a potential threat.
2. This reinforces my previously held beliefs. I'm going to accept it, and maybe add it to my store of arguments for why my beliefs are true (even if they aren't). Whoever told me this information is an ally.
3. This has no effect on my previously held beliefs, but makes me feel good. Aww, that's cute, but I'll promptly forget it. Whoever told me this information is nice and kind.
4. This has no effect on my previously held beliefs, but makes me feel bad. So I'm going to pretend I never heard it. Whoever told me this information is mean.
5. This has no effect on my previously held beliefs, but I'm not really interested. So I'm going to smile and nod, and promptly forget it. Whoever told me this information is an insufferable know-it-all.
6. This might help me get more stuff. I'm going to hang onto it and try it out to see if I can get more stuff by using it. Whoever told me this information is helpful.
7. This might help me get laid. I'm going to hang onto it and try it out to see if I can get laid more by using it. Whoever told me this information is helpful.
It's possible to resist these trends, but it's difficult.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @05:04PM (3 children)
This post is definitely a 4.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday October 30 2017, @05:21PM (2 children)
This post is definitely NOT a 7.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by frojack on Monday October 30 2017, @05:56PM (1 child)
Number 8: How can I get the 15 seconds of my life I wasting reading that back?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:07AM
i dunno, I am not going to get laid again if I use your number 8 in dialogue after getting number 7 to work.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:11PM
actually NOT trying to resist the trend of getting laid. :-)
If we did, it would all end in about a century.
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