The Zuckerberg Revolution by Neal Gabler in the LA Times
I’ve referenced Gutenberg’s Press (as topping Time Magazine’s “Events of the Millenium”) in guest lectures to Student Affairs grad students over the years, so this article really jumped out at me.
Here are some bits that caught my attention:
- Zuckerberg’s social in-box “…may even challenge the very idea of serious ideas.”
- “The more we text and Twitter and “friend,” abiding by the haiku-like demands of social networking, the less likely we are to have the habit of mind or the means of expressing ourselves in interesting and complex ways.”
- In particular, the notion of the “haiku-like” nature of social media.
- “That makes Zuckerberg the anti-Gutenberg. He has facilitated a typography in which complexity is all but impossible and meaninglessness reigns supreme. To the extent that ideas matter, we are no longer amusing ourselves to death. We are texting ourselves to death.”
I don’t believe that all social media is meaningless. I have experienced a tremendous sense of community through this form of communication, both personally and professionally. I have seen great examples of writing about thorny issues on blogs (e.g, The Daily Dish , Ta-Nehisi Coats). However, I am compelled by the notion that maybe we are not as engaged in serious and complex thought, and that critical thinking may suffer. I, too, am tired of slogging through “Need some coffee!” tweets to get to the meat. But there is meat out there.
The real question for me is what exactly will be the lasting impact of social media? I’m not quite ready to sound the alarm bells of doom but it bears watching.