Ridiculous Opinions #307
A working theory of problems in the world.
One of the best things that I’ve done recently is try to eliminate algorithmic media from my life. Anything that is designed to get my attention, I try to distance myself from. I have no more Instagram, no more Reddit, and I ingest only news that is designed on a timeline-like framework. This has helped immensely with how I feel about the world as a whole and made me a happier person in general. Though I engage with A.I. tools, they are used in a way that they should be designed to be used; i.e. as a way to save me time. And the more I use these A.I. tools, the more I realize that they have no real purpose. They are merely solving a problem that they, themselves, have created and are working desperately to keep that venture capital money flowing before the economy crashes because of it all.
When you have a bit of distance from these things, you’re able to see the world in an entirely different light. I find my brain functioning a bit more like it used to; almost as if its an echo of the brain that I had before the internet got involved in my life. I am able to focus a bit better (though it can be hard to unlearn the last twenty-plus years of my existence) and I’m able to walk around with a clear head most of the time.
Last night I had a moment where I realized how unplugged I might actually be. My daughter, Abbey, was telling me a story about something that was making the rounds on the internet; something that was very popular and kept popping up in her social media feed. And as she was describing this thing, I realized that I had no clue what she was talking about and by the time I would have looked it up, it would have disappeared from the collective attention spans of the world as consumers moved on about their business. Prior to the last few months, I would have known exactly what she was talking about. But last night, I had no idea.
Then I thought, How wonderful that I don’t know anything about this! How spectacular that I have allowed myself to not be a part of this moment!
But that’s when I started thinking about the world in general and its relation to the internet.
Occasionally, I’ll get someone who tries to call me out as a hypocrite for my use of A.I. to get simple tasks done. It’s usually a person who bemoans the double-standards of why this fifty-three year old man can tell them that they shouldn’t be using this stuff, when they use it themselves. How can I gripe about the use of social media with kids when I engage with it as well?
My working explanation for this seeming hypocrisy is that I know what life was like before all of these things existed.
I think that is what lies at the heart of the matter for the way people use social media/A.I. in this day and age. At the school I teach at, there has been a lot of talk about voice and choice; which is basically giving students the autonomy to make decisions themselves about their lives. Young people exist and because they exist they should be able to make decisions themselves about things that affect them.
I’m beginning to think that might not be the right way to go. Sometimes, people don’t know what is best for them. Sometimes, we should rely on people with knowledge, rather than thinking that you have knowledge because you’ve been on the internet for years.
People in this day and age want to be treated with respect, but what I’ve learned over these last few years is that they want that respect without having earned that respect. They want to skip the line, so to speak, and start with the respect that they think should be afforded to them without having done the hard work it takes to earn that respect in the first place.
I think this might be the problem with the world right now.
You can think of respect as social capital, like its a bank account. In your life, you have social capital that can be spent, used in meaningful ways and drawn upon in various moments so that others will treat you with the kind of dignity that you think you deserve. The problem with this is that people have a tendency to think they should begin with that social capital, as if you are born with a bank account full of that social capital from which you can draw upon. Thus, people think that they have social capital, but they have not earned that social capital. It is their god-given right to it from the beginning of their lives. It’s like a social capital credit card.
I see this a lot with students. Mr. G, why can YOU have a phone in school when I can’t?
Because I’m an adult. The rules aren’t the same for us. I have earned my place in the world. You have not. You’re just a person with no life experience, thinking you have social capital in your bank account. You merely have a social capital credit card, where you are simply drawing upon things that you don’t have.
Mr. G, why can YOU use A.I. tools when we can’t?
Because I knew how to do the things that A.I. can do before it came along. I know how to write. I know how to engage with critical thinking. I’ve done these things. You have not. You’re using your social capital credit card without having the money to pay it back. I spent years writing and engaging in critical thinking. I have made my mistakes. I have learned the wrong things and then retracted those thoughts because I continued to engage with the world. I have built up and torn down myself many times in my life in an attempt to be a better human being. When you engage with A.I., you’re not doing that. You’re skipping the line and then getting mad when people say you’re ignorant.
Mr. G, why can you talk smack about people who use social media when you use it yourself?
Again, because I know how to engage with other human beings on a day-to-day basis and have done so since the beginning of my life. You seem to have skipped that part and now your social anxiety prevents you from having normal human interactions. I used to have to fret for hours over whether to call that girl I liked on the phone, and then when I finally worked up the nerve to do so, I still had to have a conversation. You just text a person and never have to worry because there isn’t a face or a voice on the other end.
Do you get it?
The reason I started this newsletter with the title that I did is because this is a working theory. It is evolving. Even at my age, I am learning about this. I am formulating my thoughts on what I perceive to be wrong with the world. I am not saying that I’m right. I’m merely trying to make sense of the jigsaw puzzle of reality in which we currently live.
I have life experience. That counts for something. I have experienced the world around me. I have earned my social capital. I have earned the respect that I should be afforded. The one thing I would ask of anyone in the day and age, old person or young person, is this:
Have you earned your social capital?
It’s something to think about…
