I came to an article via the blog post Cassandra on The Economist (http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2013/01/facebook, likely to go behind a pay wall soon enough).
Cassandra led me to a Slate article http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/01/facebook_graph_search_how_the_social_network_s_new_search_engine_could_change.html that came highly recommended. What is there in it to be so worthy of being read? It talks about Facebook; you know that social networking site that gets people together, like on the lawns of the India Gate in Delhi. Will it be wrong to assume that the Government of India would want to banish Facebook from the face of the earth? China is clamping down on social networks, as you must have heard. So, why should we be far off and trailing?
Facebook is for keeping “in touch with people.” It is not a “utility where you make decisions about what to buy or where to go.” It “is a place to have fun.” It has internalized “purposelessness … [is] vulnerable to the next fun thing to come along.” I am not saying all these, the article does.
That got me to wonder whether a few days ago going to India Gate for a protest was a fun thing or a purposeful thing? The two, fun and being purposeful do not seem to go together.
You decide.
Raghuram Ekambaram
Cassandra led me to a Slate article http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/01/facebook_graph_search_how_the_social_network_s_new_search_engine_could_change.html that came highly recommended. What is there in it to be so worthy of being read? It talks about Facebook; you know that social networking site that gets people together, like on the lawns of the India Gate in Delhi. Will it be wrong to assume that the Government of India would want to banish Facebook from the face of the earth? China is clamping down on social networks, as you must have heard. So, why should we be far off and trailing?
Facebook is for keeping “in touch with people.” It is not a “utility where you make decisions about what to buy or where to go.” It “is a place to have fun.” It has internalized “purposelessness … [is] vulnerable to the next fun thing to come along.” I am not saying all these, the article does.
That got me to wonder whether a few days ago going to India Gate for a protest was a fun thing or a purposeful thing? The two, fun and being purposeful do not seem to go together.
You decide.
Raghuram Ekambaram
4 comments:
India Gate and other protests have become more fun than purpose, alas!
Though I mentioned India Gate to milk local relevance, what I had in mind most was the "Occupy Wall Street" and similar things in London and other places. The coming together is fine but repeated instances of they being merely flash in the pan does not sit well with me.
RE
I think one can have fun with a purpose. Let me give you an example - way back in 77/78, a classmate would come up with some weird game and launch it on us in the hostel canteen. Being jobless, we would all play it for hours with this classmate. While we and he had fun, we later found out that he was working on self learning programs and used these games to learn about 'learning'!
True Amrit, b ut the game was never a protest :)
RE
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