Basso Profundo

I just finished reading The Circle by Dave Eggers. Along with Her, Spike Jonze's latest film, and The Fifth Estate, both of which I also watched recently, I've had some reflections about life in the Digital Age.

1) Remember that Social Media is a Consumer Product.

"It's not that I'm not social. I'm social enough. But the tools you guys create actually manufacture unnaturally extreme social needs. No one needs the level of contact you're purveying. It improves nothing. It's not nourishing. It's like snack food. You know how they engineer this food? They scientifically determine precisely how much salt and fat they need to include to keep you eating. You're not hungry, you don't need the food, it does nothing for you, but you keep eating these empty calories. This is what you're pushing. Same thing. Endless empty calories, but the digital-social equivalent. And you calibrate it so it's equally addictive." - Mercer, The Circle

Human beings are at once the producers and consumers of social media. You - your shares, your Likes, your comments on articles, your photos - are the product, and there are companies that are profiting off of you. Exercise moderation and discipline.

2) Talk to a real live human being! Deeply!

3) Does complete transparency make a better society? I haven't formed an opinion on this yet, but am still thinking about it.

I'm trying not to be a curmudgeon like the Dowager Countess Violet in Downton Abbey, who is quite resistant to change.

"I couldn't have electricity in the house, I wouldn't sleep a wink. All those vapors floating about."