Digifesto

Twitter was getting me down so I went on a hiatus. I’m still on that hiatus. Instead of reading Twitter, I’ve been:

• Reading Fred Turner’s The Democratic Surround. This is a great book about the relationship between media and democracy. Since a lot of my interest in Twitter has been because of my interest in the media and democracy, this gives me those kinds of jollies without the soap opera trainwreck of actually participating in social media.
• Going to arts events. There was a staging of Rhinoceros at Berkeley. It’s an absurdist play in which a small French village is suddenly stricken by an epidemic wherein everybody is transformed into a rhinoceros. It’s probably an allegory for the rise of Communism or Fascism but the play is written so that it’s completely ambiguous. Mainly it’s about conformity in general, perhaps ideological conformity but just as easily about conformity to non-ideology, to a state of nature (hence, the animal form, rhinoceros.) It’s a good play.
• I’ve been playing Transistor. What an incredible game! The gameplay is appealingly designed and original, but beyond that it is powerfully written an atmospheric. In many ways it can be read as a commentary on the virtual realities of the Internet and the problems with them. Somehow there was more media attention to GamerGate than to this one actually great game. Too bad.
• I’ve been working on papers, software, and research in anticipation of the next semester. Lots of work to do!

Above all, what’s great about unplugging from social media is that it isn’t actually unplugging at all. Instead, you can plug into a smarter, better, deeper world of content where people are more complex and reasonable. It’s elevating!

I’m writing this because some time ago it was a matter of debate whether or not you can ‘just quit Facebook’ etc. It turns out you definitely can and it’s great. Go for it!

(Happy to respond to comments but won’t respond to tweets until back from the hiatus)