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Facebook Logic

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geo

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Re: Facebook Logic

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What is deemed newsworthy today, in the social media era, seems increasingly tied to how "viral" it has become. Case in point: someone posted a photo of a white kid wearing a MAGA hat "smirking" in the face of a Native American protester outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Suddenly the whole internet is in an uproar, people becoming enraged at the racist white kid taunting a Native American or (insert your own narrative here). Then as more details emerge, a "fuller and more complicated picture" of the incident emerges.

In other words, the "news" is how everyone has overreacted to an item that wasn't really news in the first place.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/n ... ngton.html

And now I'm seeing in USAToday that social media is in an uproar again, but now because NBC news host Savannah Guthrie had the gall to interview the white kid in question. She owes America an apology!

The problem here seems to be the instantaneous nature of the internet. We react before getting all the facts. Just another reason to not waste time with social media. Above all, don't react based on partial information.
-Geo
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DWill

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Re: Facebook Logic

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We have "slow" movements of different kinds--food, gardening, cinema, you name it, and even an institute on slowness! That's what I thought of when reading your post, because social media is the fast medium nonpareil, with mainstream news not far behind. I picked up a journal in a coffee shop with the wonderful title Delayed Gratification, billing itself as "the last to breaking news." Thinking of the last "bombshell" revelation about the Trump investigation, from Buzzfeed, I wish the media had taken a deep breath and just waited a day or two. Instead, we had reporters going out to Democrats for a reaction to this single report of skullduggery, giving the politicians a chance to say, "If this is true, we will investigate, and if confirmed this is an impeachable offense!" All of it was unnecessary. The collateral damage is to strengthen the conviction of Trump supporters that the prez is being shafted by the media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_movement_(culture)
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geo

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Re: Facebook Logic

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This seems to me just another argument for critical thinking, but that has to come from the ground up, not top down. People have to want to think about thinking and be aware of the prejudices and biases that sabotage rational thinking. The Transcendentalists' philosophy of self reliance seems to me as timely as ever in these crazy days. How can we get our citizens to want to learn and to improve themselves?

By the way, DWill, I saw your recent post about Thoreau's Walden[/], and it inspired me to pick up a copy at a used book store. A large, annotated version. I'll be reading it very soon.
-Geo
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DWill

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Re: Facebook Logic

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geo wrote:This seems to me just another argument for critical thinking, but that has to come from the ground up, not top down. People have to want to think about thinking and be aware of the prejudices and biases that sabotage rational thinking. The Transcendentalists' philosophy of self reliance seems to me as timely as ever in these crazy days. How can we get our citizens to want to learn and to improve themselves?

By the way, DWill, I saw your recent post about Thoreau's Walden[/], and it inspired me to pick up a copy at a used book store. A large, annotated version. I'll be reading it very soon.

I've never read an annotated version of Walden. There are certainly a great many allusions and references that can be annotated. I don't know if you remember way back, about 10 years ago, there was a person called I think Thomas Hood. We began to read Walden, which Thomas considered a very difficult book. I thought his claims about symbolism were way out there. The fact is, Walden is anything but a difficult book. I love the writing most of all its qualities. I'm frankly not sure if I'd like to read a footnoted version.

A while back, I listened to some of an audio book of Walden. The narrator read with an emphatic tone, as if everything Thoreau said was a claim of some kind. I always heard a more meditative voice when I read it, even though I have to admit that Thoreau does hector a good deal in the beginning. I quit the audio book.

The newest biography of HDT by Laura Dassow Walls gave me a new perspective on him. He was a lot more socially involved than I had always assumed. He also was very much the professional writer and worked at it tirelessly.

I went back and read again the writings about Maine that are collected as The Maine Woods. Those are very enjoyable, too. His first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack is a trudge at times, overly long and digressive. But it has some superb passages that show why Thoreau is one of our prose masters.

It's ironic that Thoreau was so much in the shadow of Emerson throughout his life. Few people read Emerson today, while Thoreau has lasted.
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Re: Facebook Logic

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Thanks, DWill,

This is the version I bought.

https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Walden ... +van+doren

The first 136 pages contains biographical information and a detailed chronology of Thoreau's life. The rest of the book contains the annotated Walden and Civil Disobedience. The annotations are printed side by side with the actual text, so the reader can easily consult the footnotes while reading. I haven't read Walden, but this volume seems a good way to dive right in.

I would certainly participate in a new discussion of Walden. I'm sorry I missed it last time around.

On a grander level, I'm kind of fascinated with themes of self reliance and improvement, traditionally espoused by our founding fathers and, later, the "Transcendentalists." I'm probably falling into the age-old bias of believing that things are going to shit. Then again, think of a modern day "man cave"--where we watch football and play video games; the focus is on entertaining ourselves. Whereas, the "man cave" of yesteryear might very well be a library of books, in which the focus is learning. If democracy depends on an informed citizenry, we seem to be drifting into a society where ignorance and fatuousness is more of a commodity than progressive values and reason. Ah, you see what I did there? I brought us back to Facebook.
-Geo
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