Re: <nettime> please read - and how can this possibly be combatted?

[sebastian@rolux.org]

> please read - and how can this possibly be combatted?


 1. The New York Times is not a trustworthy source.

 2. The title image/animation serves a purpose. It's quite openly pornographic: 
    exploits a subject, produces arousal, presents as objects some mysterious
    others, asks: how would it feel to be in or under their skin.

 3. Countries are not "tinderboxes". Not being American helps to understand 
    this.

 4. Familiarize yourself with the history of political and religious violence
    in South Asia. The world was not created in Zuckerbergs dorm room.

 5. Stop blaming Facebook for everything, be it Brexit, Trump or worse.
 
 6. Collect empirical evidence. It could be that social media do not just 
    accelerate the spread of conspiracy theories and violence, but just as 
    well, and maybe even more so, the analysis of and response to conspiracy 
    theories and violence.

 7. Do not participate in the amplification of hysteria. Realize that hysteria 
    is not a only a tech problem (amplification, "fanning the flames"), but
    also a people problem (anger, boredom, setting stuff on fire). Most 
    importantly, do not fall for the meta-hysteria of the New York Times.

 8. Amplification is not causation. Don't shoot the messenger (the "medium").
    In case the messenger *is* the message, simply ignore her. Start with 
    yourself, then help distract others.

 9. Facebook is an addiction. Remember "opium for the masses"? This one doesn't
    sedate, it makes people nervous. It's more like "crack for the masses":
    living from quick fix to quick fix. "Its gamelike interface rewards 
    engagement, delivering a dopamine boost when users accrue likes and 
    responses". Remember that "deleting" yourself doesn't change anything (and 
    doesn't work anyway). If you want to stop but cannot stop, seek help. 

10. Finally, a bit of 9/12 2001 wisdom: if you feel stressed about faraway
    violence, stop posting on the internet. Turn off your computer. Get out
    and take a walk in the park. Be with people, observe animals, go swimming.


Further reading:


"The middle distance fell away, so the grids (from small to large) that had
supported the middle distance fell into disuse and ceased to be understandable.
Two grids remained. The grid of two hundred million and the grid of intimacy.
Everything else fell into disuse. There was a national life--a shimmer of
national life--and intimate life. The distance between these two grids was very
great. The distance was very frightening. People did not want to measure it.
People began to lose a sense of what distance was and of what the usefulness of
distance might be."

https://rolux.org/tmp/no_context.pdf


"The fact that mere accidents intervene to confuse our situation unnecessarily, 
that my telegram should arrive at your office on an afternoon when you are not 
there, that your telegram should be incorrectly addressed, and finally, as I 
now see, the fact that my letter to your parents should be delayed by one day 
(it was mailed on Thursday as the enclosed receipt shows)--all this is bad 
enough, but things between us have reached such a point that even the gravest 
accident cannot make things worse. Today on receiving notification of your 
telephone call I could not very well leave the office, and anyway couldn't wait 
to hear as soon as possible what it was you wanted; besides, with unreasonable 
hope I thought you might be telephoning in order to rob your express letter of 
some of its acrimony--which is why I asked for the call to be put through to 
the Institute. That was a mistake; we haven't got a booth; there are always a 
lot of people hanging about in the president's anteroom where the telephone is, 
and as it happened one of the directors, a tiresome man, was standing behind me 
cracking jokes; I could have kicked him. As a result I couldn't hear properly, 
but above all for quite some time I couldn't even take in the meaning of your 
words. After all, I had reason to assume that my letter to your parents had 
arrived the day before, that you had known about it before sending your 
telegram and of course before writing your letter as well. Thus, on the 
telephone, apart from the fact that I couldn't hear properly, I couldn't help 
wondering what it was you wanted, and why in fact you had called me. Moreover 
with the sound of your voice--and this, after all, is why I am afraid of the 
telephone--that passionate longing to see you came over me again; the simplest 
method for clarifying everything and having everything clarified, was to come; 
so I said I am coming to Berlin."

https://rolux.org/tmp/to_felice.epub


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