Jaron Lanier’s You are
Not a Gadget raises interesting points about the commonplace/second nature
technology, specifically the Internet, plays in our lives today.
Lanier questions digital technology’s ability to define
people, as “being a person is not a pat formula, but a quest, a mystery, a leap
of faith” (p.5). But in a world like ours, where not having a Facebook profile
is as ancient giving out your “landline” phone number (and using the word,
“landline,” for that matter) we increasingly validate our existence online.
On the same page, Lanier also notes, “it would be hard for
anyone, let alone a technologist, to get up in the morning without faith that
the future can be better than the past.” A value traceable through the many
social media outlets most of us have (Myspace), continue to (Facebook), and
will eventually (Pinterest) integrate into our everyday beings.
Pinterest, in particular, is the newest forum of
self-expression—an opportunity to collect the things we like, want or wish we
could be/have. Users claim their identities and communicate their personalities
through the images they pin, whether they belong to them or to someone else,
and categorize them on boards by title/subject (referent of the organizational
files Lanier mentions).
Mashable also released an article last week naming the
up-and-coming personal pinboard the world’s now 3rd largest social
network (behind Facebook and Twitter). As a fan and avid user, I thought of
Pinterest often while reading this piece.
As more Easters are turning into Pinterest craft sessions
and Tuesday nights are becoming Pinterest Dinner occasions, is this digital
footprint more personally authentic and tangible than Lanier suggests? Or are
we hopelessly locked-into the network’s rudimentary niche grasp—followers stuck
in the latest digital humdrum—as he fears?
Megan,
ReplyDeleteGreat insights. I hate to take a critical view and side with Lanier, but I must admit, I feel like Pinterest is the latest digital humdrum. I feel like many pinners are pinning items that may not be a realistic form of their identity. Like other social media networks, this is another medium to portray a certain image, whether this be true or not. On the other hand, maybe we are using Pinterest to aspire us to be more?
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