What's in it for me?
Reading Slate's review of Jaron Lanier's new book, it occurred to me to ask of Facebook and Twitter and all these other web sites, "What's in it for me?" It's not the sort of question I by nature ask, because, I don't know, that's not normally how I think, but Lanier brings up a good point: Facebook wants me to share so they can ultimately make money from my sharing. Hmm. And for my effort, I get…what?
I guess I like seeing pictures of people I play Quizo with, and I suppose others may enjoy seeing pictures of me play Quizo, and – yes, let's be honest – I enjoy looking at pictures of myself playing Quizo, but does this really amount to anything? It is profoundly narcissistic and reminds me of what I hate about the internet as it currently exists.
The internet was created to do great things. The product of ARPA, it tied together researchers and engineers and what-have-yous in government, industry, and academia, and while they did their share of goofing off, the whole thing existed to push the ball of human civilization forward. Color me an inveterate believer in Progress.
In the Sixties, humanity's horizons were expanding beyond the surface of the earth into the heavens. Sure, humanity cowered in fear of nuclear annihilation, but it's not like we're currently free of anxiety: we're cowering in fear of annihilation at the hands of religious nuts. Anyway, the internet has become a medium for graduate-level navel-gazing. What is the fucking point?
Do something! Do something that matters, something that will be remembered more than fifteen minutes from now.
