2 posts tagged “thinking about things”
http://jacobmorse.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-would-orwell-do.html
This
is in response to both "karen," "zach" and others...I can only assume
that you are also products of this generation that I call my own--a
generation that is completely drowned in and irreperably desensitized
by this eruption of digital media and culture. (call me melodramatic
but--please--just think for one millisecond). There are deeper
questions at stake here that go beyond mere practical personal safety
and the right to privacy. The real question is, people, is anything
sacred anymore? Facebook is more than just a collection of pictures to
share with friends, Karen, it is a symbol of the larger problems of our
time, epitomizing the hyper-detached nature of every exchange we have
ever known.
Why care if the CIA and a ba-gillion other people have
access to our personal information? True, it may not directly affect
you or your 200 friends from various universities and all their
make-out shots, but the second you press "save" on the facebook, you
stop becoming a real person, so to speak--what is in your head at that
point becomes a consumer product and a weapon. And in case you were
unaware: before cell phones and computers were perpetually strapped to
our skulls, humans had some sort of sanctuary in their minds. They had
the power, at any given moment, to be completely alone, completely
safe, and free.
This sanctuary is lost for most. I know mine is
gone. And the saddest and most frightening thing is: we are happily
paying taxes for it to be beat even further into the ground, while "we
the people" shackle our selves to this vulgar means of understanding
and experiencing the world.
There's quite a bit to take issue with here, so I'll outline.
1) but the second you press "save" on the facebook, you
stop becoming a real person, so to speak--what is in your head at that
point becomes a consumer product and a weapon
2) And in case you were
unaware: before cell phones and computers were perpetually strapped to
our skulls, humans had some sort of sanctuary in their minds. They had
the power, at any given moment, to be completely alone, completely
safe, and free.
3) it is a symbol of the larger problems of our
time, epitomizing the hyper-detached nature of every exchange we have
ever known.
4) The real question is, people, is anything
sacred anymore?
1) Ah. So because I put on the internet what media and art I enjoy
listening to and digesting, I suddenly become a number in a database to
sell "kids like me" products? Suddenly, I'm erased and what's left is a
xeroxed copy of myself? Ha.
Now, if what you're attempting to say is that your ideas which you
assume are just going to be circulated to whatever bored college
students are reading this are going to be found and mined for
information by data mining programs, then yes, I agree, that's
absolutely true and so on and so forth. But to think that by putting
yourself on a publicly available communication service that you're
suddenly another tool of large companies who'se business it is to be
"ahead of trends" or whatever the term is, or more of one, I think is
unreasonable.
The aim of facebook appears to be a site that gives people a
background on you and allows you the opportunity to put in contact
information to a PUBLICLY AVAILABLE FORUM. For example, I don't wish to
give out my phone number, AIM screen name or personal email on
Facebook. There are people, however, who do, and believe that only
college students will see that kind of information. That's an incorrect
assumption. I don't mind, however, that that government or data mining
companies know I like punk rock. I understand and respect some people's
desire to live their lives as under the radar as possible.
2) Naive like woah.
3) I'd say you're in the right direction, but facebook ain't it.
That's AIM, by the way. You can have conversations with multiple people
and not see any of them. You can say things to them without having to
see their reactions. You can be thousands of miles away and have a
conversation.
That's good and bad, and that, I'd argue wraps up the hyper-detached, warp-speed culture that I believe you're describing.
4) No.
Thing more important than the rest of this blog: I love the band name Sinking Ships. I also like that band's that band's full length, Disconnecting.
I know I'm a few steps removed from the mainstream, and I'd like to think that I'm at least unfamiliar with what's trendy now, (but then again, this account, and my iPod speak otherwise...) but I really have no connection with the Pitchfork crowd, I hope. And it's real easy to just speak about out of college 20 somethings searching for something in life to appeal to them as "the Pitchfork crowd", and I just fell for it.
Weren't they called hippies 40 some years ago? Slackers a couple decades later?
Or perhaps they are well-employed, in which case, they probably had to work for it. Saudi princes and the like notwithstanding, one does not get a high paying job in an emerging industry by being born into it. One must go through hard work to get there. And certanly there's some bias about manual labor versus office work, and I'm not going to deny that. I'm sure the guy working construction would spit on the indie/hipster's car from his lunch break 20 stories up, but to suggest that the indie/hipster effortlessly glided into the position is ridiculous. College isn't called college so guys can smoke weed and listen to the new "insert band pitchfork is jocking here" record. Those kids get thrown out or burned out rather quickly anyway. It's called college because it's hard work to get a degree.
And maybe I grew up strangely, and the culture is different now, but I don't expect a degree from a college to get me a high 5 digit job right out of the gate. That comes maybe, maybe 10-15 years later, with hard work and luck. Also, that job is going to mean less and less because of the rising costs of everything, inflation and this taxes on this war in Iraq.
But if we're going to play by the stereotype, then the only difference between them and I is in the bands and brands I buy.
Consider:
American Apparel Hoodies//Band hoodies
digital camera and blog// digital camera and blog
listens to obscure indie music//listens to obscure punk rock music
iPod//iPod
nose in the air approach to music//nose in the air approach to music
(though I'd argue I'm making progress and stopping that praticular
approach)
obsessive with music//obsessive with music
All I want is simply not to be thrown into the same category as these guys: L.A. Indie/Hipster Though this is only a joke, the fact that it is even being made about this group worries me:
On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, the morning after the California general election, it’s announced that a surprise write-in candidate has triumphed over Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our new governor is to be Steve Aoki, a.k.a. DJ Kid Millionaire — heir to the Benihana restaurant fortune and owner of the indie rock label Dim Mak (Bloc Party, The Kills, Das Oath). Aoki makes the following public statement: “I’m so inspired by the people of Los Angeles, the way they go to work every day. They’re fucking awesome."
Do people my age really expect to be earning six figure salaries right out of college? I'd like to think not, though that is what is getting reported, though I wonder how much of that is the media playing to predictable biases, but then again, I don't have the statistics, so I'll let it be.
I suppose I'm just sick of the media portraying my generation as a bunch of drug-abusing rich kid slackers.
P.S. However, if I hear one more example of quasi-moral outrage against
the stereotype of "hipsters", I'm going to sit in my chair and
fume/rant about it on my blog. Sure, saying I'm going to burst a vein
in my forehead, grow 14 feet in 15 seconds and have my skin turn green
sounds better, but let's not forget: I'm not important. That's not
going to happen. A kid on the internet becomes angry. Unheard of, I
know.