I’ll have to consider interruption angle. I’m good at focus or multitasking, but I understand the squirrel lure.
Information channels (social media is just one type, TV another) has four ineluctable laws related to Shannon information entropy.
1) cesspool of melancholy
2) suppuration of trolls
3) ceaseless recording
4) demonic speed
These are the four laws of digital media.
There was a medium which cropped up in the 80’s, the phone answering machine, which is a great illustration.
For example, people would talk to an answering machine as though it was a person, only to realize it was just a recording and get upset. Or message tag where you’d leave a message to call back and they would leave a message back for an infernal game of ping pong. Your recording might be played back to exactly the wrong person to get you in trouble. Or, someone might record a conversation while you were unaware. Or you’d get 50 messages from someone harassing you, or ominous anonymous recorded threats.
Personal favorite was when digital hit, you’d get 5-10 minute recordings forcing you to transcribe them somehow to answer, listening to the thing three or four times.
[ My technique was when I got a message, I deleted it instantly, and called the person and left a message “I saw you called, I’m free at X time to speak.” ]
The phone was the ultimate squirrel because you jumped when it rang and interrupted what you were dojng, and with answering machines it perfected it.
However…
When was the last time you actually answered the phone, and actually listened to and answered a message you missed?
It’s taken 40 years but we have absorbed and learned to ignore the phone.
Very insightful. I find social media campfire metaphor with its AI shaman especially apt and memorable.
This might seem off topic but I saw a week attack SEGM can I ask you to respond to it
Nicely reasoned piece, focused and apt metaphor.
I’ll have to consider interruption angle. I’m good at focus or multitasking, but I understand the squirrel lure.
Information channels (social media is just one type, TV another) has four ineluctable laws related to Shannon information entropy.
1) cesspool of melancholy
2) suppuration of trolls
3) ceaseless recording
4) demonic speed
These are the four laws of digital media.
There was a medium which cropped up in the 80’s, the phone answering machine, which is a great illustration.
For example, people would talk to an answering machine as though it was a person, only to realize it was just a recording and get upset. Or message tag where you’d leave a message to call back and they would leave a message back for an infernal game of ping pong. Your recording might be played back to exactly the wrong person to get you in trouble. Or, someone might record a conversation while you were unaware. Or you’d get 50 messages from someone harassing you, or ominous anonymous recorded threats.
Personal favorite was when digital hit, you’d get 5-10 minute recordings forcing you to transcribe them somehow to answer, listening to the thing three or four times.
[ My technique was when I got a message, I deleted it instantly, and called the person and left a message “I saw you called, I’m free at X time to speak.” ]
The phone was the ultimate squirrel because you jumped when it rang and interrupted what you were dojng, and with answering machines it perfected it.
However…
When was the last time you actually answered the phone, and actually listened to and answered a message you missed?
It’s taken 40 years but we have absorbed and learned to ignore the phone.
We will do the same with social media.
Rupert Holmes had a pop song in the '80s about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IGlp7qMx5M