Reading “In the Flow” by Boris Groys. We bought the e-book with a group and there are so plans to write a critique of it in some online magazine. The text Kylmälä, Salusjärvi & Ylikangas recently published feels nagging in relation to Groys, who celebrates the event fullness of the contemporary museum.
I don’t agree that “… art in flux is better documented than ever before, and the documentation is better preserved and distributed than traditional artworks”. Because even though people take photos and make videos no one is building an index. A video is not a documentation, it’s spam before someone goes trough the trouble of cataloging it. Cataloguing builds references and context.
If you refuse an “unpaid” gig, you can make a thing about your refusal. If you accept it, you get to do a thing. Every “I refused an unpaid gig” story is the same. Every thing is different.
Leaving twitter is an adult thing to do. It’s about dissolving into the internet, not clogging it with jokes. Time to take the flow more seriously.
“Leaving twitter is an adult thing to do. It’s about dissolving into the internet, not clogging it with jokes. Time to take the flow more seriously.”
I have this feeling about first wave social media in general. Maybe the worst case scenario is to use Twitter like Facebook. Only follow friends and throw inside jokes in public.
The biggest problem is this deleuzian space where we discuss not only with people but machines, virtual representations of animals and Jari Sarasvuo (who doesn’t respond).
I still feel that Twitter could have been valuable tool for research (wrote most of my MA thesis based on articles/references found via Twitter) but when most of the academics post boring stuff about their everyday life it becomes also very counter-productive. People should focus! On the other hand I easily forget to follow this kind of personal web 2.0 platforms you are trying to create here. Maybe bb style forums dedicated on some common themes were the pinnacle of Internet discussion culture (also some reddit channels represent this). On the other hand they created school shooters.
Feeling connected vs. Focusing. I liked machines and virtual animals on twitter. They made it feel less like a tool and more as a mode of expression. Also loved personal inside jokes. They were bad for focus but made me feel connected. I need distractions to keep focus. Ultimately I was bored by fb and twitter.. They are so repetitive “Post -> Like -> Comment -> Like” day after day.
I bet the only reason people stay in fb is that the company periodically changes how the system works. Users complain how they “preferred the old way” but actually the trill of learning how the new system works keeps them hooked. The same dynamic is evident in indie-games which are launched in a beta stage. Players get to enjoy the same game anew when an update is published. The usability of fb is designed “broken” and frustrating (fb is as complicated and bad to use as an early 2000 university intranet), so that people feel less intimidated by it and get to see it evolving.
Twitter is designed better.. It’s a finished product and paradoxically this is why it’s less popular. Users cant see and participate in its development. Twitter was bad for learning how to communicate. It teaches users how to broadcast their opinions but it doesn’t aid users to learn how to make sense of things (fb is better for that).
A bb style forum would be cool. Do you remember Keosto.org? It’s accessible on Wayback machine too. It was a good effort but went down because people were not using it enough. I have a backup of the database and was supposed to host it on storijapan.net but I couldn’t get it to work.
In the beginning I didn’t look for connection in Twitter (until some friends joined). What you say about the limitations to communication (140 char.) is true. This also affects harmfully to political discussion atm. Maybe different expectations also crash social media? Did you read recent news about people not posting personal stuff to facebook anymore? They just share stuff produced elsewhere (what I’ve done basically always). Facebook is too complicated mess these days because it triest to include everything in it.
I remember Keosto but didn’t really use it. Those old bb platforms are not very secure these days (unless updated to more recent versions). What I would like to have is bb style forum with some kind of user voting. Reddit is actually pretty cool if used properly. I’m following Diem25 discussion there but it seems to lack participants.
Maybe after our reading circle we can start some kind of platform which supports the flow :-)
Yup. Heard about the fb change. I hope fb’s reign will end soon. I like reddit too.. I use it for catching up on /r/synthesizers news.
Puuh.. I haven’t read the In the Flow chapters for this week. Best get on with it.