(four days later) This revamping everything electronic definitely slows me down. Yeah, so I pilled the trigger and got an iPad (I am undecided on the merits of ios v. Android) which let me use the chat - don't think they've got the implementation quite right yet but it works. Feel free to use it or not, I'm game either way.
elm
i'm not sure making comments in the app is that great
I don't like the comment aspect either, or reading newsletters. I'm just using the chat at this point. I think it's the design -- everything feels small! My eyes are old and tired enough of the screens as it is ...
I'll definitely be keeping it casual and low-key. No pressure!
Speaking of social media platforms, with the imminent collapse of Twitter many great writers and researchers are frantically importing some of their more substantive threads from over the years to another platform (or even creating impromptu Substacks to preserve them) before the whole thing goes down. Whatever you think of social media, Twitter in particular was a really wonderful resource for all kinds of discussions and insights that never made it into published papers or official stuff anywhere else. The toxicity and other problematic dynamics will obviously not be missed (but eventually be reproduced elsewhere); in the meantime it's sort of a minor tragedy to lose all those great threads, dialogues, anecdotes from hundreds of thousands of people. It's like having an enormous library suddenly burn down and losing everything inside, except it's a library for short-form posts. I'm not aware of anything like this having happened before in history, digitally speaking. There are other social costs as well: lots of key advocacy and real-time crisis response took place there and no other platform is currently equipped to do this nearly as efficiently.
Not that it's healthy to have a hoarding attitude toward information or verbal material, of course, but I think there's an instinctive need many of us have to hold onto records of our meaningful conversations, ideas and philosophical reflections, spontaneous observations; in short, one key dimension of our shared memories and knowledge. It made me think more about this less material aspect of ownership: archival memory (both shared and individual), recorded knowledge, the trivial infrastructure of our social communications. Along with the museums, memorials and historical archives. The latter are more like the commons, but the former is at the mercy of the whims of one narcissistic billionaire.
Anyway, I came across an updated fleshed-out version of that Twitter thread on land ownership I shared recently (now in a blog), so thought I would post it here:
I loved that thread! And blog. I printed out the thread when you posted it earlier, very useful analysis :) But the blog form is easier to read. And I like how she explained entailment (being a Jane Austen fan myself, I'm always up for those conversations).
There are so many threads that I personally have downloaded, preferably through the Thread Unroll app that people trigger if there's been a good one. There's one person, Michael Harriott who used to write for The Root, who will do enormously long threads explaining various issues around racism in ways that nobody else does, and he doesn't do it on any other format! I wish he did but he doesn't.
In that respect, having a library burn down is an important perspective. There's plenty of stuff that it's fine to abandon or lose, really, but there is a lot of other material that is very meaningful. There's an historian, Thomas Zimmer, who's been writing excellent threads on white supremacy, Christian Nationalism, and stochastic violence. I'm sure he has academic publications, but Twitter is where he makes things accessible and presents powerful arguments.
And a lot of people have been making the point that Twitter isn't just losing coding and engineering expertise; it's losing institutional knowledge, which is as you point out a less material but also necessary aspect of ownership. It makes me think of what happens in a culture when too many elders are lost too soon and there's so much knowledge that doesn't make it to the next generations. Even language.
I'm on android so I can't use the chat.. Hope it's coming soon, as a right now I'm haft way through reading "The man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world; the Escape Artist, by Jonathan Freedland," also started reading "A Walking Life" , I started walking late as well, almost at 2 years old,😅😅. and reading some others as well... Thank you for your talent and knowledge, always a pleasure.
The Escape Artist sounds amazing! And oh, thank you, I hope the walking book brings something good to your life :)
I hope it's coming soon, too. I'm sure it's a lot more complex than I think to make apps work on different platforms, but it does feel like it's separating communities in unfortunate ways.
(four days later) This revamping everything electronic definitely slows me down. Yeah, so I pilled the trigger and got an iPad (I am undecided on the merits of ios v. Android) which let me use the chat - don't think they've got the implementation quite right yet but it works. Feel free to use it or not, I'm game either way.
elm
i'm not sure making comments in the app is that great
I don't like the comment aspect either, or reading newsletters. I'm just using the chat at this point. I think it's the design -- everything feels small! My eyes are old and tired enough of the screens as it is ...
I'll definitely be keeping it casual and low-key. No pressure!
Speaking of social media platforms, with the imminent collapse of Twitter many great writers and researchers are frantically importing some of their more substantive threads from over the years to another platform (or even creating impromptu Substacks to preserve them) before the whole thing goes down. Whatever you think of social media, Twitter in particular was a really wonderful resource for all kinds of discussions and insights that never made it into published papers or official stuff anywhere else. The toxicity and other problematic dynamics will obviously not be missed (but eventually be reproduced elsewhere); in the meantime it's sort of a minor tragedy to lose all those great threads, dialogues, anecdotes from hundreds of thousands of people. It's like having an enormous library suddenly burn down and losing everything inside, except it's a library for short-form posts. I'm not aware of anything like this having happened before in history, digitally speaking. There are other social costs as well: lots of key advocacy and real-time crisis response took place there and no other platform is currently equipped to do this nearly as efficiently.
Not that it's healthy to have a hoarding attitude toward information or verbal material, of course, but I think there's an instinctive need many of us have to hold onto records of our meaningful conversations, ideas and philosophical reflections, spontaneous observations; in short, one key dimension of our shared memories and knowledge. It made me think more about this less material aspect of ownership: archival memory (both shared and individual), recorded knowledge, the trivial infrastructure of our social communications. Along with the museums, memorials and historical archives. The latter are more like the commons, but the former is at the mercy of the whims of one narcissistic billionaire.
Anyway, I came across an updated fleshed-out version of that Twitter thread on land ownership I shared recently (now in a blog), so thought I would post it here:
https://helensreflectionsblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/property-ownership-and-the-twitter-conundrum/
I loved that thread! And blog. I printed out the thread when you posted it earlier, very useful analysis :) But the blog form is easier to read. And I like how she explained entailment (being a Jane Austen fan myself, I'm always up for those conversations).
There are so many threads that I personally have downloaded, preferably through the Thread Unroll app that people trigger if there's been a good one. There's one person, Michael Harriott who used to write for The Root, who will do enormously long threads explaining various issues around racism in ways that nobody else does, and he doesn't do it on any other format! I wish he did but he doesn't.
In that respect, having a library burn down is an important perspective. There's plenty of stuff that it's fine to abandon or lose, really, but there is a lot of other material that is very meaningful. There's an historian, Thomas Zimmer, who's been writing excellent threads on white supremacy, Christian Nationalism, and stochastic violence. I'm sure he has academic publications, but Twitter is where he makes things accessible and presents powerful arguments.
And a lot of people have been making the point that Twitter isn't just losing coding and engineering expertise; it's losing institutional knowledge, which is as you point out a less material but also necessary aspect of ownership. It makes me think of what happens in a culture when too many elders are lost too soon and there's so much knowledge that doesn't make it to the next generations. Even language.
Frankly, I don’t think I can handle any more chat features or social media, but I’ll be reading you faithfully.
I know what you mean! I’ll have to see how it goes. I’m not sure encouraging more phone time or notifications for anyone is a good idea 😬
Really appreciate the month-long series you’re doing. It feels good to see it every day. Reminds me of what’s important.
I'm on android so I can't use the chat.. Hope it's coming soon, as a right now I'm haft way through reading "The man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world; the Escape Artist, by Jonathan Freedland," also started reading "A Walking Life" , I started walking late as well, almost at 2 years old,😅😅. and reading some others as well... Thank you for your talent and knowledge, always a pleasure.
The Escape Artist sounds amazing! And oh, thank you, I hope the walking book brings something good to your life :)
I hope it's coming soon, too. I'm sure it's a lot more complex than I think to make apps work on different platforms, but it does feel like it's separating communities in unfortunate ways.