We mostly assumed things would be better because we assumed the net would be 'information'.
The military, academia, government, business are 'conscientious' culture who assume people act rationally.
But go to the drug store and look at the magazines: games, sports, sex, porn, gossip, celebrities, fashion, vacations etc..
And that's the 'above bar' stuff - now you have to add in all the things people are interested in that's not 'regulated' by social mores of 'what can be in a magazine'.
The internet is a 'giant ball of noise' that are are thoughts, and it's mostly not about knowledge, civility etc.
Even as people have access to 'information' they don't want to access it, often they prefer to live in a bubble of someone telling them what they want to hear.
So the web is a bit like 'everyone's voices being raised very loudly, some more than others' and that's that.
There is 'some' information in there, but even then it's still hard to parse through the noise. Even in ultra conscientious culture we debate about what reality is.
Take heart: I really do believe that 2022 might be the start of a 'post noise' era. Every one of us realizes that we've been duping ourselves a bit. We all know Instagram and LinkedIn are a bit vapid, Facebook is a bit rubbish, TikTok is meaningless, Cable News is into flame wars. We continue to use them for their nominal value but I really believe we are bit sick of it. Even the 'ultra digital native' Gen Y are tuning out a bit.
It's here to stay obviously but I think we are developing a new relationship with it.
The military, academia, government, business are 'conscientious' culture who assume people act rationally.
But go to the drug store and look at the magazines: games, sports, sex, porn, gossip, celebrities, fashion, vacations etc..
And that's the 'above bar' stuff - now you have to add in all the things people are interested in that's not 'regulated' by social mores of 'what can be in a magazine'.
The internet is a 'giant ball of noise' that are are thoughts, and it's mostly not about knowledge, civility etc.
Even as people have access to 'information' they don't want to access it, often they prefer to live in a bubble of someone telling them what they want to hear.
So the web is a bit like 'everyone's voices being raised very loudly, some more than others' and that's that.
There is 'some' information in there, but even then it's still hard to parse through the noise. Even in ultra conscientious culture we debate about what reality is.
Take heart: I really do believe that 2022 might be the start of a 'post noise' era. Every one of us realizes that we've been duping ourselves a bit. We all know Instagram and LinkedIn are a bit vapid, Facebook is a bit rubbish, TikTok is meaningless, Cable News is into flame wars. We continue to use them for their nominal value but I really believe we are bit sick of it. Even the 'ultra digital native' Gen Y are tuning out a bit.
It's here to stay obviously but I think we are developing a new relationship with it.