The autistic network: Web2.0 makes you dumb [printer-friendly] • The Register
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/09/zadie_smith_social_network_autism/
Posted in Media, 9th November 2010 17:29 GMT
If The Social Network dug the grave for Web 2.0, then here comes writer Zadie Smith to pile a lorryload of dirt on top.
The movie is excellent, and it’s finally got the review it deserves. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Smith has a big helping hand from Jaron Lanier, who provides her with just the right illumination.
In the movie, Zuckerberg is either a sociopath, or a tragic figure – take your pick. The movie’s scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin calls him a “tragic hero”. For Lanier, whose You Are Not A Gadget is the first and best book on the Web 2.0 culture, and the bland conformity that it requires from us, the answer is simpler.
She notes Zuckerberg’s behaviour as the the movie drew near: on the day the movie opened, he donated $100m to his home town’s school system. "He didn’t need to just get out ‘in front’ of the story. He had to get right on top of it and try to stop it breathing. [Then] two weeks later, he went to a screening. Why? Because everybody liked the movie."
That’s not having your own mind. But then that’s not the point. Facebook forces people into a straitjacket of conformity: “One nation under a format”, she calls it.
“The last defense of every Facebook addict is: but it helps me keep in contact with people who are far away! Well, e-mail and Skype do that, too, and they have the added advantage of not forcing you to interface with the mind of Mark Zuckerberg."
The review has spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it or plan to soon – don’t click the next link. If you have, it’s got some quite canny observations. Over here [1]. ®
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-why/?pagination=false%E2%80%9C
Coming soon: Mark Zuckerberg the comic-book hero (28 September 2010)http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/28/zuckerberg_comic/
The autistic network: Web2.0 makes you dumb [printer-friendly] • The Register
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/09/zadie_smith_social_network_autism/
Posted in Media, 9th November 2010 17:29 GMT
If The Social Network dug the grave for Web 2.0, then here comes writer Zadie Smith to pile a lorryload of dirt on top.
The movie is excellent, and it’s finally got the review it deserves. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Smith has a big helping hand from Jaron Lanier, who provides her with just the right illumination.
In the movie, Zuckerberg is either a sociopath, or a tragic figure – take your pick. The movie’s scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin calls him a “tragic hero”. For Lanier, whose You Are Not A Gadget is the first and best book on the Web 2.0 culture, and the bland conformity that it requires from us, the answer is simpler.
She notes Zuckerberg’s behaviour as the the movie drew near: on the day the movie opened, he donated $100m to his home town’s school system. "He d
idn’t need to just get out ‘in front’ of the story. He had to get right on top of it and try to stop it breathing. [Then] two weeks later, he went to a screening. Why? Because everybody liked the movie."
That’s not having your own mind. But then that’s not the point. Facebook forces people into a straitjacket of conformity: “One nation under a format”, she calls it.
“The last defense of every Facebook addict is: but it helps me keep in contact with people who are far away! Well, e-mail and Skype do that, too, and they have the added advantage of not forcing you to interface with the mind of Mark Zuckerberg."
The review has spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it or plan to soon – don’t click the next link. If you have, it’s got some quite canny observations. Over here [1]. ®
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-why/?pagination=false%E2%80%9C
Coming soon: Mark Zuckerberg the comic-book hero (28 September 2010)http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/28/zuckerberg_comic/