Jaron Lanier talks about social media

[b0b]

I first heard Jaron Lanier speak at a tech conference and became an instant fan. More recently, we became friends when he bought my Desert Rose S-8. Yes, Jaron Lanier is also a steel player.

In the past few years, Jaron has been encouraging people to delete their social media accounts. Here's a very good interview where he explains how tech companies are, through no malicious intent of their own, manipulating us and society in destructive ways. He's right, of course...

https://youtu.be/kc_Jq42Og7Q

After considering Jaron's basic argument, I dropped the Google Adsense ads from the Steel Guitar Forum a few months ago. I haven't been able to drop my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts, though. I like them too much. It's an addiction.

[Mitch Drumm]

Listen to it and then read the first 30 or 40 comments on Youtube under that video interview and tell me we are not in the final days.

Beyond embarrassing.

[Larry Carlson]

.
The only "social media" I do is this site, two firearm forums and a site related to my Roland GR-55.
I do not intentionally use Google or visit any social media sites like Facebook etc.

b0b.......you have no idea how much some of us out here appreciate how "clean" you keep this site.
The lack of ads, the lack of trackers, the lack of bots......it makes it comfortable in here.
It is appreciated.

[b0b]

Thanks, Larry.

Mitch: The comments criticizing the interviewer were especially strange. I felt that his questions set up Jaron's talking points really well for a general audience. There was mutual respect.

It's best not to read the comments on YouTube. They're almost always depressing.

[Charlie McDonald]

Of course I had to read the comments. They're not wrong.

Jaron is eloquent. "It's an insane way to structure civilization."

[gary pierce]

It's sad, true, and too late. The addiction to smart phones, and social media cannot be stopped, but the first step is admitting you have it.

[Ian Rae]

The comments criticizing the interviewer were especially strange. I felt that his questions set up Jaron's talking points really well for a general audience. There was mutual respect

I agree. Maybe they're mistaking directness for rudeness. He is doing his job of asking the questions you or I might want answered. Perhaps to some a well-spoken Englishman sounds arrogant.

[b0b]

I watch so much English television that I didn't notice his accent!

And that goes to Jaron's point a bit. Television has reached the stage where we no longer rely exclusively on the advertising model. Many people, myself included, pay monthly for streaming services that include a wide range of on-demand programs and movies. I would pay $10/month for a subscription to a well-populated social media app that respected my privacy.

[Erv Niehaus]

The first step I made in the right direction is to eliminate television. I like to watch an occasional old western movie but that's about it.
It's surprising how much you can get done when you're not stagnating in front of the boob tube.
Erv

[b0b]

Or you could eliminate internet usage. Same effect.

[Erv Niehaus]

Bob,
I'd miss you.
Erv

[Charlie McDonald]

I watch so much English television that I didn't notice his accent!

I still have trouble understanding Basil Fawlty. Not to mention his wife!

I would pay $10/month for a subscription to a well-populated social media app that respected my privacy.

I don't think that would be enough. The game seems to be to speculate on revenue from advertising, thinking it will be more than $10 up front.
Just trying to guess which way is the greediest. Not to mention the salivation that goes on with manipulating the proceeds of data mining.

[Slim Heilpern]

Jaron's books are also worth reading:

- You Are Not A Gadget

- Who Owns The Future

- Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now


If nothing else, it helps to understand what's going on, and even if (like me) you're not inclined to delete your accounts, it's important to be educated in this area and Jaron knows what he's talking about.

- Slim

[Donny Hinson]

More than anything, the smartphone has turned us into a society that no longer writes properly, or speaks face-to-face.

[Bob Knetzger]

I met Jaron briefly 30 years ago when we both were working with Mattel on separate projects. A very instersting guy to say the least.

Funny that he is a steel player now. He was known for playing lots and lots of unusual musical instruments. I guess now he fits the typical pedal steel player demographic I jokingly refer to as "pale/stale/hale/male." (I, too am an older white guy who hasn't missed too many meals

Of course Jaron would plot his own course in playing pedal steel. A S-8 sounds about right, but I see a U-12 or U-14 in his future. (And maybe he can do some virtual reality pick blocking with a PowerGlove.)

All joking aside, his points about the insidious addiction of fb/twitter social media seems true. I really like his idea of a different business model. Paying for it would fix the race-to-the-bottom advertising algorthyms, but unless most people would do it together, it would fail (cause you'd go where your friends are). His idea for public funded version, like a public library is brilliant and could work! libraries are funded by property taxes..maybe a modest IP providor tax would work?

[Fred Treece]

I watched “The Great Hack” on Netflix recently, which further justified the decision to delete my FB account 3 years ago. It wasn’t just the data mining, which would have been enough. All social media needs a reset. The only way that will happen is if there is a mass exodus of everyone kicking the habit. And yeah, this site of b0b’s should be the new model.

His idea for public funded version, like a public library is brilliant and could work! libraries are funded by property taxes..maybe a modest IP providor tax would work?

Good idea.

[Charlie McDonald]

That is a cool idea. The library must live and be sustainable.

[Godfrey Arthur]

Kudos bOb!!!

[b0b]

[Les Cargill]

I watched “The Great Hack” on Netflix recently, which further justified the decision to delete my FB account 3 years ago. It wasn’t just the data mining, which would have been enough. All social media needs a reset. The only way that will happen is if there is a mass exodus of everyone kicking the habit. And yeah, this site of b0b’s should be the new model.

His idea for public funded version, like a public library is brilliant and could work! libraries are funded by property taxes..maybe a modest IP providor tax would work?

Good idea.

Jaron's pretty much spot on. The present Internet industry seems rather like Wylie Coyote after he ran off the cliff. All that's left is to look down. It's happened before... each end every SiVa company specializes in one thing - burning through money.

"The Great Hack" pretty much undermined its own premise. YMMV. People used verbal persuasion, then persuasion in print, then on radio, then on TV... it's all the same basic thing. All Cambridge Analytica could do is correlate factors into a model. Somebody else will do the same and be more discreet about it. The premise lacks ... habeas corpus.

But in the end, that's no more or no less than the old "computer dating" trick from the past. What we find is that the map is not the territory. "Computer dating" turned into... Tinder... which seems pretty gross if you think about it. Oh boy - automated promiscuity...

My youngest has the habits of an ecologist and calls this "the desertification of the Internet". I think it's more like The Enclosure from British history. As in "Oh, a paywall? Nope" and the millions of zealots of various stripes being grumpy on what fora remain.

But in the end, attention is not land so it's not even that. Everybody has to be someplace, but nobody has to log in at all.

We had Usenet; we abandoned it. That's about all we need to know.