Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 32, No. 218.
            Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
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    [1]    From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca
           Subject: [Correction Re: [Humanist] 32.215: the psychoanalysis of everyday      computing] (48)

    [2]    From: davep@davelinux.info
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 32.215: the psychoanalysis of everyday computing (18)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2018-11-24 02:23:14+00:00
        From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca
        Subject: [Correction Re: [Humanist] 32.215: the psychoanalysis of everyday      computing]

Willard

The Bret Stephens piece quoted by Mark Wolff seems with is repetitive
sequences to be an enticing argument.

>> Tweeting and trolling are easy. Mastering the arts of conversation and
>> measured debate is hard. Texting is easy. Writing a proper letter is
>> hard.
>> Looking stuff up on Google is easy. Knowing what to search for in the
>> first
>> place is hard. Having a thousand friends on Facebook is easy.
>> Maintaining six
>> or seven close adult friendships over the space of many years is hard.
>> Swiping
>> right on Tinder is easy. Finding love -- and staying in it -- is hard.


But its logic is betrayed by an two assumptions that are not inductively
or deductively true:

(1) X is easy, Y is hard therefore Y is better

(2) Y takes longer and therefore is better

I do not trust the dichotomies that are marshalled here. To tweet well is
an art of concision that takes practice. To text with any touch of
brilliance requires a knack for combining words that will tickle attention
--  providing connectors for conversation. Searching is often a race
against the algorithm pushing its own response which sacrifices precision
-- the art of searching depends on learning to bank on the aleatory.
Friendship is often nourished by acquaintance -- from those superficial
encounters I sometimes bring back tidbits to share with those I have a
deep and abiding relationship with -- like the posting to a discussion
list that led to my reading Stephens's opinion piece and my own little
rant here.

And it has been easy (but not instantaneous).

There I feel better now.

-- 
Francois Lachance
Scholar-at-large
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance
https://berneval.blogspot.com




--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2018-11-23 08:00:11+00:00
        From: davep@davelinux.info
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 32.215: the psychoanalysis of everyday computing

'Looking stuff up on Google is easy', but dangerous and assisting a gross
tax avoider (Double Irish). With a little thought, you could use
DuckDuckGo, Lilo or StartPage. 'Having a thousand friends on Facebook is
easy', but has the same disadvantages, and with a little thought we could
have established Diaspora. Who are the worst offenders in this scenario?
Why, it's UKHE again.



-- 
http://www.historicalresources.myzen.co.uk (research and pedagogy)
I use Lilo web search: no tracking and social good (Firefox add-on)
This machine runs on liquid Linux
Often coming to you via TOR (The Onion Router)
De Havilland Fellow, University of Hertfordshire





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