I'm with you Marc. Also though, there should be some recognition here of
attention capital. when we're participating in so-called social networking
sites we're in fact providing labor for the corporations that own the
platforms. Simply, it goes like this - some influential economists and
"thinkers" in the 70's were sitting around thinking about the evils of leisure
time - if they could just get people to think of work as leisure then
everything would be great - what they came up with is an idea that if people
could be convinced that they were in fact serving themselves and a "community"
while doing labor then they could get a whole lot of people doing their labor
for them at no cost. Web 2.0 is little more than the fulfillment of this dream.
In the case of SL they're actually getting people to pay them for doing their
labor. Imagine going back to the mid 20th century and telling an industrialist
that in the future they wouldn't have to build a factory,
in fact they wouldn't even have to supply the machinery for their workers, and
their workers wouldn't understand themselves as such at all - they'd be happy
to make your products (content) for you because they'd feel like somehow
they're serving themselves. They'd see themselves as "socializing" with
"friends" rather than doing what they're doing 9 times out of 10, sitting alone
in front of the computer indulging in their most exhibitionistic fantasies for
an audience that's too busy indulging in their own egos to care.
I think we need more people willing to step out into the real world. It needs
some attention. There are many intelligent minds stuck in the factory who could
do some good out (t)here.
> mmm,
>
> I'm not asking for A mono-cultural and isolated thing here, more of a
> conscious effort by people to support each other, artists or whatever
> those communities may be. I feel that sharing and supporting others is
> an honourable thing to do - not for any religious reasons or official
> ideology, but because as an individual who respects others (humans), I
> want a better world to live in, therefor I must do something of value
> and not just care about my own singular entity. I have made the decision
> to bypass the 'heroic' stance of genius in order to seek a life beyond
> such distractions which really is more about childish fantasies and
> top-down control - in so many different ways in our cultures. I know it
> sounds corny, but I still believe in things like love and respect, and
> other equally silly things - I know some adhere to a post-human agenda
> and this is their choice, which is more about nihilism for the self and
> ignore others and their very 'real' contextual situations. I am not
> asking people to be like me, but I am asking for people to protect their
> cultures before it is taken away from them.
>
> Also,
>
> >for that matter the fibers this stuff goes out on - it's all
> >corporate. How we situate ourselves, how we fight abuse, those
> >are integral to this, but I don't feel withdrawal - which is
> >only an inauthentic withdrawal (in the Sartrean sense) - is any
> >sort of answer.
>
> It may all be corporate, but humans are not necessarily corporate
> drones, unfortunately many of us are engineered and (de)educated to be,
> and this is one of important points here - if we all fall into a fait
> accompli, absolutist or even such an emperical state of being of
> accepting what we are fed, then the battle will be lost, perhaps it is
> already...
>
> I really do not agree that SL is grass roots, although I do agree that
> it is populist which is not always a negative factor, such a thing can
> change things in our world and make brilliant things happen. SL, is
> centralist, successfully exploiting a digitally networked Internet
> culture, like google has. It may have been once, not sure though. One
> really cannot call it grass roots in respect of its reasons, function
> and purpose.
>
> But of course, all that is being discussed here is different reasons for
> our existence, ways of being - it all melds together somehow.
>
> wishing you well.
>
> marc
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