tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post4765597065571656359..comments2011-12-28T20:13:58.251-08:00Comments on Cynosure: Alone, AmongAndrew Dowdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16427195289009713787noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-15026484943430338142011-12-28T20:13:58.251-08:002011-12-28T20:13:58.251-08:00Thanks man! And yeah, I feel like if it were to w...Thanks man! And yeah, I feel like if it were to work more smoothly, that section examining the first changes seen at the turn of the 20th century would be at the front of the essay, so you could keep it in mind... But thanks! I'll keep posting this kinda mumbo jumbo this semester to come too.Andrew Dowdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16427195289009713787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-19814561040964331322011-12-27T22:14:51.173-08:002011-12-27T22:14:51.173-08:00Great great post. I love the juxtaposition of soci...Great great post. I love the juxtaposition of social media and historicism.(rather more accurately, the latter through the former in magnitudes unseen before) Keep it up!Dan Yohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13869215250600097117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-92037505360704589182011-12-19T12:35:32.614-08:002011-12-19T12:35:32.614-08:00Tom,
You mention that 'ranking'–by which ...Tom, <br />You mention that 'ranking'–by which I'll also take to mean taste at large–is not just a need to broadcast the self, but "also a reaction on the intake side of things to the sheer perplexing volume of the stimuli the man who clicks his mouse is bound to be bombarded with." Well yes, though those two things aren't necessarily connected, although they're wrapped up in the same title. "Broadcasting the self outwards" is not really how I would (did) categorize it, but rather a process of orienting yourself among others in system which bears few of the structural markers in normal society. Meanwhile, the sentence I quoted really is concerned with the mass amount of shit that floats around the web–yes this is true, and it's widely been accepted that one of the Web's central functions is a vast and powerful sorting mechanism, in which users can locate subgroups with similar interests. I don't think those two are intimately connected. <br /><br />Furthermore, the lurker statistic bears little relevance now: in 2000, the web didn't have facebook, myspace, twitter, tumblr, blogspot, or any other of the massive sites which provide the ability to generate content. In 11 years, everything has changed about the way people engage with content. <br /><br />Also: "He must increasingly develop tactics to sift and aggregate the enfilade, often with stunning severity that comes to preclude all other forms besides those included within his chosen apparatus, or he will be forever be perched on the precipice of choice without the ability to leap." Meaning.... you have to have strong taste, or you'll be an indecisive person?Andrew Dowdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16427195289009713787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-89591282471871435562011-12-19T07:12:11.224-08:002011-12-19T07:12:11.224-08:00I feel as if the ranking of everything you talk ab...I feel as if the ranking of everything you talk about in this essay is a response not just to the now native need among users to broadcast the self outwards, as you say, but also a reaction on the intake side of things to the sheer perplexing volume of the stimuli the man who clicks his mouse is bound to be bombarded with. He must increasingly develop tactics to sift and aggregate the enfilade, often with stunning severity that comes to preclude all other forms besides those included within his chosen apparatus, or he will be forever be perched on the precipice of choice without the ability to leap. At that level it hasn't even become a question of being noticed and verified as relevant yet, and I feel like more people than you think actually have a negligible need to be heard, and make this their primary concern.<br /> A statistic you might find interesting in light of this essay is that 90 percent of internet users exist solely as lurkers (true in 2000 anyway, when the first study I can find on this topic was conducted (wikipedia “Lurker”)), those who nibbled at the internet without regurgitating. Of course I would imagine that in the last ten years the monolithic social websites you refer to in this essay have precipitated something of a paradigm shift in terms of the mobilization of the surfing serfs. Nonetheless it delineates a strange line through the internet community.Tom Beschererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07149495393695513242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-21021627075489759202011-12-19T06:33:00.185-08:002011-12-19T06:33:00.185-08:00I'm still reading, but for a correction: I wou...I'm still reading, but for a correction: I would assume you mean Youtube has something closer to 600 BILLION views. Although I guess by saying over 600 million you leave the window open to any higher number.Tom Beschererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07149495393695513242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849259357449785859.post-18475240265958951762011-12-19T06:31:16.820-08:002011-12-19T06:31:16.820-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Tom Beschererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07149495393695513242noreply@blogger.com