A timely quote from one of my favourite podcasts: Roderick on the Line. Full episode is linked below. This particular discussion starts at the 1:00:00 mark. “Maybe its by virtue of the fact that I do see stuff like social media, and I just see how pervasive thats become as the way that we express everything... Youve got this feeling amongst people that seems to be like “if I dont take a photo of this and put it up, it didnt actually happen. Thats starting to seem like a real thing amongst a lot of people... Its getting difficult for people to separate their idea of themselves from their opinions, from the body politic, from Americas Next Top Model, or whatever it is. It really seems like everybody is supposed to have an extremely strong and deeply-held conviction about big issues as well as things that just happened. And if you have no opinion, or if you have a light opinion, or if youre open to getting more information, youre kinda not a fully-branded character yet. And in order to fulfill your personal brand, online and therefore consequently in your life, you have to come down super-hard on one side, and then stick to it. And maybe its always been that way, its just that now theres so much on the line... it was one thing to sit there and yell at the TV while President Nixon was talking, and its another thing now to be part of these coalitions of people - these little flashmobs, flash-slash lynch mobs of people - who are constantly looking for what latest indignity or problem they can decide to rally around. And theres not that much incentive anymore for somebody to just be kind of a reasoned person who shows up, and listens, and says things sometimes... I think that’s a bigger problem than most of us are willing to admit. because then each side benefits from stoking those people, and from getting them more and more and more dug in on that one side. It just doesnt feel like theres that much incentive out there to go out and try and become a reasoned person who can figure out what youre willing to give away in order to make something good happen. - Merlin Mann merlinmann/roderick/ep-109-supervan.html
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:19:16 +0000
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