Does the book You Are Not a Gadget help us understand how social media impacts our ability to have a meaningful life?
Nowadays an integral part of our lives has become a global network, and along with it – social media. And this has become the main cause of the appearance and main theme of the book You Are Not a Gadget. Jaron Lanier discusses the technical and cultural issues that arise from the lack of forethought digital devices. And he warns – Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter dictate the wisdom of crowds and the computer algorithms are set above personality. The book is something really outstanding, stands out from the mass of books greatly. This is due to the author's approach, which he chose for storytelling and the arguments that he provides. The arguments are really different and very significantly. Why? It is because the whole book and its content are a total criticism and refutation of the whole modern digital world.
Digital culture and related topics such as the future of privacy and intellectual property rights concern the society in which we live. Any idea from the category of ‘save the world together’ has a list of what each of us can do: go to work by bike, collect recyclable materials, etc. The author provides a list of similar decisions regarding the problems about which he speaks in his book. He advises not to write anonymously; develop a site where you can tell about yourself (not like the usual social network profiles); post a video creation of which took a long time; write a post on the blog considering its content before for weeks; writing on Twitter, find a way to describe your internal state, not merely external events (Lanier 17). In fact, these tips still do worth something. They give the person an opportunity to show oneself through the network as thinking being that has feelings, attitudes, views, but not just a part of society that is afraid of expression due to the possibility of being judged or not to please someone.
Despite the fact that the author is one of those who created the virtual reality technologies and not only, he also preserved the culture and values that everyone had before the occurrence of the World Wide Web.
The essence of all the ideas is that we, the people, have a new way to realize the concept of network, to find new ways for creation and preservation of culture we are constantly losing.
The fact with what I really agree is how the author expressed his attitude to the precise fixation algorithms and testing algorithms of our knowledge. ‘We ask teachers to teach to standardized tests so a student will look good to an algorithm’ (Lanier 25). It limits us with the scope and sets into conditions relevant to all, especially to those who do not want to do more than just check a small set of knowledge standardized to a certain piece of paper written by some people, who are unable to create truly and are not ready to find unique people and distinguish their abilities among all.
Criticizing flat global network as inappropriate communication environment for scientific and technical communities Lanier gives a good advice what to do while using search engines ‘If you want to see how valuable something is, try living without it for a while’ (Lanier 96). He states, that on the search page first published references will not necessarily be the best, even the same Wikipedia. It is necessary to carefully filter material presented by the global network. Although search engines are designed to make our lives easier, but still everything should always be treated with cautious. And here I totally agree with this advice, since the program does not have to decide everything for us, people have their own consciousness, which they should know how to use. Search engines are just tools designed to facilitate the achievement of our goals and nothing more.
In the book my attention caught phrase of the author ‘Separation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection’ (Lanier 119). Indeed, a phenomenon is often observed in the modern world, and it can be very frustrating. But on the other hand, communication via social networks has contributed to our lives a lot of new sensations and has enabled people to communicate more and wherever they are. Of course, not all are fans of constant communication, especially through social networks, but you always have a choice and the last word will always be yours.
The book You Are Not a Gadget provides us with a lot of threats caused by the social media influence. Therefore, we must take into account some advices of the author and try not to be subjected to harmful effects of the global network. We should not be afraid of expressing ourselves, showing real us to the society. Yet, we should be careful using the benefits of global networks to filter the information, and do not forget what is real world and what is virtual.
Work Cited
Lanier, Jaron. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. Print
