Will people become obsolete, so that everyone but a few elite techies will have to be supported by a charitable basic income scheme? Should we treat all humans as being equally worthy, or are some humans more deserving of self-determination because they are good at nerdy tasks?…
— from ‘Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now’ by Jaron Lanier.
I had never heard of Jaron Lanier until I ran across one of his books, while browsing at the Pagosa library. (Of all places!)
I was attracted by the book’s title.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
I always figure, if the title is longer than five words, the person must know a thing or two about writing.
The book itself, thankfully, is rather short — only 147 pages. (I don’t generally browse for fat books.) But Mr. Lanier did manage to squeeze in ten cogent arguments for deleting your social media accounts. Right now. (Or more precisely, for deleting my social media accounts. I have no control over your social media accounts. Only Big Tech has that control.)
Presumably, Mr. Lanier knows a thing or two about technology, as well. In 2005, Foreign Policy named Mr. Lanier as one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals. In 2010, he was named to the TIME 100 list of most influential people. Prospect named him one of the top 50 World Thinkers in 2014.
In 2018, Wired Magazine named him one of the top 25 most influential people over the last 25 years of technological history. Among his achievements, Mr. Lanier and his business partner Thomas Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, the first company to sell VR (Virtual Reality) goggles and gloves.
But like I said, I’m glad his book was short. And somewhat understandable, for a non-nerd.
The Ten Arguments discussed things like addiction, free will, the undermining of ‘truth’, destruction of empathy, and generally, all the ways social media has been making me unhappy. But the argument I found most challenging was Argument Ten.
“Social media hates your soul.”
I am a very religious person, and as such, deeply protective of my soul. I do not want my soul to be hated, by social media or anyone else.
But I got lost in the maze of Argument Ten. It made enigmatic references to religion, and spirituality, and consciousness, and metaphysics, but I guess I was waiting for Mr. Lanier to mention “God”. Which he didn’t do. Sure, the chapter was only 14 pages long, but I thought for sure one of the world’s leading thinkers would find some way — during a discussion about religion and spirituality and consciousness and metaphysics — to at least mention God in passing.
He could have said, for example, that we can’t scientifically prove that God exists, but if He does, He definitely would not be using social media, because of Arguments One through Nine. But Mr. Lanier, instead, left God standing on the sidelines. So when I got to the end of the little volume, I felt, like, “Well, I can’t click the ‘Like’ button for this book.” I mean, most of the book was thoroughly satisfying. But if you’re going to talk about my soul, you sure as heck better be ready to talk about God.
Typically, when I finish a book feeling unsatisfied, I deal with my frustration by picking up another book, right away.
It just so happened, the book sitting on my night table was the Bible. (God works in mysterious ways, when your soul is at stake.) I opened it to a random page, and found myself in the Book of Daniel — a guy who didn’t need VR goggles to see things other people couldn’t see.
And I read this:
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Obviously, “the book” refers to “Facebook”. And as our knowledge increases, we learn what we need to do.
Like I said, mysterious ways.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.