the public square

[rising_moon]

Recently, prompted by some of the public comments about the Notre-Dame fire, dreda's and my mutual friend Gwendolyn posted a thoughtful caution about public discourse in social media.

https://occultlibrarian.blogspot.com/2019/04/social-media-and-public-square.html?fbclid=IwAR3T_SsfZHYq7WkPnZL2_2Itgwphcpe2ygkZdpuQcuob8Jhw-KiovHMwOH4

Essentially:

1. People are not understanding that they have no real privacy rights in this sphere. What they say is not private. It also doesn't ever really go away, even if they delete it.

2. You are being monetized. Your conflict and drama is being monetized and machines are learning from it. ... It isn't private and the way it is used is opaque and doesn't require your consent.

3. In pretending like we are in a private space but not realizing that we are in a public square what we have really done is to collectively lose cultural competency about how to have public conversation.

Gwendolyn neatly summarized my main concerns about FB, G+, and any conversation accessible to a monetizable search engine.

Comments

[crosslet]

There's a lot of really insightful writing in Gwendolyn's post beyond the public vs private space conversation. I'm glad I clicked on the link.

This particular quote:
"standing up and saying to those who are grieving..."I see your pain. I care about the fact you are in pain. "

This is a strong reminder to me - not only in writing but life in general.