Notes from Maine - 2021/01/31
I watched The Social Dilemma this weekend. It was unsurprising, and pretty good. It’s funny when you’re watching a documentary about a mind virus that manipulates people in order to farm their attention, and you’re watching it because it went viral. They played my outrage and sense of injustice to make me watch the whole thing. They interjected reenactments to hold my attention between the interviews. They had long moments of silence where we’re watching the interviewee struggle with emotions so we’ll know how important and crucial the topic is. They could rename it Pot v. Kettle.
I’m not trying to assert that there’s not a problem. I do believe that social media can be an addictive and destructive force. It’s a tight feedback loop with nothing to dampen the signal. The systems are built to spark engagement and it’s very easy to engage people with outrage and narcissism. We come for the cat videos and pictures of family, and stay for the shouting.
On the other side of the coin, isn’t this what parents were saying about television in the seventies? Kids were losing their imagination and attention span. We were all slaves to the boob tube.
In one of my books, Battle for Rockhold, I tried to picture one possible consequence. That book takes place roughly now, although I stretched technology a little. Phones, in that world, cried for attention when one didn’t pay enough attention to them. In the 90s, there were Tamagotchis—keychain virtual pets that you had to feed and care for. I can imagine cellphones going that direction in the future. Maybe if you don’t look at them enough, they would become depressed. Then it would be inhumane to take a break from them and go out for a hike.
At the moment, cellphones are more like berry bushes. Search through them and you might spot a little red circle with a white number, indicating that there’s a prize inside.
I guess I’m not an optimist, because things don’t go very well for the citizens in Battle for Rockhold. I hope our real recover from the pandemic of social media happens gradually. Maybe once we’re able to go out and socialize in person, the desire to spend time looking at a screen will decrease.
If you haven’t read it yet, I’ve made Battle for Rockhold free for the next couple of days.
Sadly, if you’ve read this far then I’ve probably offered you a free copy of Battle for Rockhold before. I know this because my email list hasn’t changed very much in the last six months. I’m happy that you’re still opening and reading my emails, but I would really appreciate if you could forward on this offer to someone else who you think might enjoy it.
