press releases are pretty useless having worked in the trenches of ruder finn, most people booking your clients don't even read them...they mostly rely on your telephone pitch and you sending them the product!
Yeah, I had that experience too, Palmer. Some chapters ahead in the novel, Alnasl talks about different ways of looking into a mirror. Are we looking to scrutinize or to admire ourselves? Social media strongly encourages the latter, I believe. As I wrote in "A Mere Icon," it seduces us into "self-made myth" and the idea that "a perfect and ceaseless infallibility" is humanly possible (of course it's not). The real rub is trying to project that for oneself while also looking for it in others. This brings out the worst in us: the rush to judgment, better-than-thou self-righteousness, moral competitiveness. More about this in part 2.
I have often thought that much like we have personal and professional identities, the advent of social media and online life has created a “virtual persona” which is easily dissociated from the basic tenets of social interaction and it is easy to become numb to the humans with whom you interact.
The idea that “virtual personas” represent a profound break with who we are “in real life” is key to the argument I’ll build in part 2 of this essay, drawing on writing and scholarship by Andrew Sullivan, Sherry Turkle, Stephen Marche, Jacquelyn Kegley, and Shenyang Zao. I first came to appreciate the scope of the problem by reading Turkle; the book I’d recommend, for a start, is “Alone Together.”
Dissociation and numbness has huge impacts on empathy, ethics, and the formation of the self. In an earlier reflection, “A Mere Icon,” I contended, “Immersed in digital worlds of which we are the center and within which our every word and deed vibrates with the force of self-made myth, we’re quickly losing our ethical moorings, our tethers to the realities of ourselves and our responsibilities to others.” I’m now fully unpacking that assertion and illustrating how it happens. Stay tuned!
Wonderful—I wrote a whole novel about a society where everyone loses sight of the people around them in favor of a virtual world. Looking forward to more of your reflections!
Ah, right! I did start to read chapter 1 of "Called" a few nights ago. The world-building is really detailed and sharp. I liked the use of Latin words for increments of time.
press releases are pretty useless having worked in the trenches of ruder finn, most people booking your clients don't even read them...they mostly rely on your telephone pitch and you sending them the product!
My online profiles only created ideal personas that my actual character couldn’t back up. Curating an image of myself only fed my out-of-control ego.
Yeah, I had that experience too, Palmer. Some chapters ahead in the novel, Alnasl talks about different ways of looking into a mirror. Are we looking to scrutinize or to admire ourselves? Social media strongly encourages the latter, I believe. As I wrote in "A Mere Icon," it seduces us into "self-made myth" and the idea that "a perfect and ceaseless infallibility" is humanly possible (of course it's not). The real rub is trying to project that for oneself while also looking for it in others. This brings out the worst in us: the rush to judgment, better-than-thou self-righteousness, moral competitiveness. More about this in part 2.
I have often thought that much like we have personal and professional identities, the advent of social media and online life has created a “virtual persona” which is easily dissociated from the basic tenets of social interaction and it is easy to become numb to the humans with whom you interact.
Yes, indeed, Gillian!
The idea that “virtual personas” represent a profound break with who we are “in real life” is key to the argument I’ll build in part 2 of this essay, drawing on writing and scholarship by Andrew Sullivan, Sherry Turkle, Stephen Marche, Jacquelyn Kegley, and Shenyang Zao. I first came to appreciate the scope of the problem by reading Turkle; the book I’d recommend, for a start, is “Alone Together.”
Dissociation and numbness has huge impacts on empathy, ethics, and the formation of the self. In an earlier reflection, “A Mere Icon,” I contended, “Immersed in digital worlds of which we are the center and within which our every word and deed vibrates with the force of self-made myth, we’re quickly losing our ethical moorings, our tethers to the realities of ourselves and our responsibilities to others.” I’m now fully unpacking that assertion and illustrating how it happens. Stay tuned!
Wonderful—I wrote a whole novel about a society where everyone loses sight of the people around them in favor of a virtual world. Looking forward to more of your reflections!
I'm interested, Gillian. Can I find your novel somewhere?
You can read the first three chapters here on Substack (with links to my website)…book two comes out next week!
https://gillywater.substack.com/p/calledchapter1
Ah, right! I did start to read chapter 1 of "Called" a few nights ago. The world-building is really detailed and sharp. I liked the use of Latin words for increments of time.
Thank you so much! It’s about time I start on book three…