Slashdot Mirror
Stephen Fry Urges Young To Flee 'Dystopian' Social Networks
An anonymous reader writes: English writer, presenter and activist Stephen Fry has urged his fans to abandon social networks, comparing such platforms to 'dystopian' forms of government seen in 1970s sci-fi films such as Logan's Run and Soylent Green. In a 2,600-word essay, the comedian, who had over four million Twitter followers prior to deleting his account in February, also compared the 'surveilled conformity' of social media to the unreal state of society depicted in The Matrix. "Who most wants you to stay on the grid? The advertisers. Your boss. Human Resources. The advertisers. Your parents (irony of ironies -- once they distrusted it, now they need to tag you electronically, share your Facebook photos and message you to death). The advertisers. The government. Your local authority. Your school. Advertisers," he writes. "Well, if you're young and have an ounce of pride, doesn't that list say it all?"
Deleting my account here.
- Anonymous Coward
But, but, but... without social media how can I create a fake version of myself to make all of my "friends" envious so they Like me?
The young. Well, maybe except that kid he married.
He starred in a movie about a decade ago with Natalie Portman which ended up having a bit of a cultural impact. You may have heard of it...
(I can't believe it's been 10 years.)
Many prominent security researchers already spoke out against it. Including Bruce Schneier on his blog and in his recent 'Data and Goliath' book. No affiliation.
Social networks are what you make of them. I have not read his essay, but from OP alone it seems to me that there's a distinction to be made here, between "doing it right" and "doing it wrong".
I need to get off my ass and set up a set of GNU Social and Diaspora nodes and experiment with some of the distributed/federated social networking. I realize a lot of it is broken with many projects being abandoned or merged, but I feel like I should find what's out there that works and try to get people on other social networks I'm on to migrate. If I can get a subset of just a few people to actively use an alternative, I'd be encouraged to help develop for those platforms.
Unfortunately I have two other major OSS projects I'm working on plus full time work...plus I go out and do stuff and things and like my social life. Our currently walled gardened social networks are a problem; a big problem. Censorship on Twitter and the new Reddit features basically help create an echo chamber effect.
women, and the dark-room orgies. So you're minced at 30. Is that such a bad bargain?
VOTE FAUST 666
Well, I don't know if I'm sure that Mark Zuckerburg should be World Dictat- Error: Insufficient Like/Dislike Ratio: Account Holder Termination Initiated.
(I wanted to put it in all caps, but lameness filter was stopping me. So just pretend it's all caps.)
Stephen Fry wants to be relevant again, after throwing his social media toys out of his social media pram (as he has done several times over the years).
I think I'll stick with social media, less likely to get shot that way.
"Shall we play a game?" -W.O.P.R.
I agree. But I'm sure enough people won't take him seriously on the basis of some pre-conceived attitude that has nothing to do with his arguments. Many people don't give a shit about other people's views any more anyway, they just come to social media to voice their opinion.
Yes, Fry is right. In my opinion.
After making an offputting remark that some people found offensive (rightfully so - it doesn't matter if your friend is *in* on the joke when you call her a "bag lady," the BAFTAs have become a cultural event and it's not surprising that people did not appreciate a slur being thrown around) and essentially throwing a tantrum, it must be social media that's wrong, not Stephen Fry.
Am I the only one that is consistently disappointed that Stephen Fry isn't the Futurama character?
I think most of us would agree that most of the worst and stupidest things that teenagers do are either to fit in with their peers, or to establish independence from their parents. Social networks let them be monitored 24/7 by both their peers and their parents, so it seems natural that they would make those sorts of problems worse. And, of course, since colleges and employers are watching too, those "I was young and stupid" moments can follow them throughout life.
Twenty. No thirty. Read the book, forget the film.
("Make Room, Make Room" is a hell of a lot better than "Soylent Green", too).
Watch this Heartland Institute video
He's not on twitter, he must not be important.
Try living without a credit card and you will be interrogated and detained every time you come back through customs. Absence of information is very suspicious. Obviously we are hiding something.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Slashdot is a social network.
Social networks are what you make of them. I have not read his essay, ....
Social networks are just noise. It's just people all screaming in the net to have their uninformed two-bit opinions heard and their pathetic little lives recognized.
Social media is just like an addictive drug but worth less.
You care.
This reminds me of a related issue. Apparently every teenager, except for my daughter, has a smart phone. This is assumed to such an extent that the high school teachers regularly incorporate their use into their lessons. At first they don't believe my daughter when they ask her why she isn't participating and she informs them that she doesn't have a phone (a few have actually sent her to the office for lying to them about not having a phone). Once she convinces them that she really doesn't have a phone they regularly berate her for messing up their lesson plans. I've complained to the school authorities, who assure me that a phone is not required, but to no avail. It is astonishing to me that the teachers can't comprehend that a teenager might not have a smart phone.
Yep, read the book, it was MUCH better, but I believe the age you had to turn yourself in for "Sleep" was 21.
The crystal in your hand turned colors every 7 years, on your 21st Bday, "Lastday", it would blink. On last day, you got to do just about anything you wanted, but if you were late for "Sleep"...the Sandmen would come to get you.
And, the gun in the book was MUCH more interesting too...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Stephen Fry is, but his analysis of "social" networks is on the mark.
When things like MySpace first came out, then FB, etc, and I started hearing from people, from institutions, from businesses, schools, everything, that I HAD to have an account on those networks, that struck me as wrong.
Now, ten plus years later, I feel that way even stronger than when FB and the rest first showed up.
When I started seeing access to things like Public Television/Radio stations, etc being FB only I knew something was very wrong.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
someone wrote a 2,600-word essay in 2016 and expects people to read it? can't he do an infographic?
If there's any type of person you should listen to, it's this man.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
This should be common sense to anyone over the age of 20. Social media does not help you, at least not how it's currently designed. To have one or two American, for-profit, companies have complete power and control over the entire worlds digital social existence is staggeringly irresponsible. I don't think Orwell could even have dreamt up a more efficient tool for control, manipulation, and corruption.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If you have an ounce of pride, why would you feel the need to hide?
I've tried. There is no "delete account", let alone remove all my posts.
Seems Slashdot doesn't support the Right to be Forgotten.
It is all well and good that Stephen Fry (http://www.stephenfry.com/) and Bruce Schneier (schneier.com) say that you should avoid social networks. Both of them have a platform (their websites) for distributing information to those who want to know. For the average person, this is out of reach (lack of technical knowledge or finances to support it). These people have not offered an alternative solutions for a parent to share pictures of her children with those who would be interested, such as close friends and family. These social networks exist with cost, yet Stephen Fry and Bruce Schneier have offered no alternative. It is like lamenting the risk of automobile theft and proposing a solution of not owning an automobile. It may be viable for some, but people who have automobiles usually have reasons for that possession.
Pull your head out!
to abandon his dystopian urge to put his penis into a man's feces hole.
I deleted my account on Facebook just before the IPO.
I noticed for two weeks following this a feeling that something was "missing".
It occurred at any random time of the day, I felt like I should be doing "something" but it wasn't clear exactly what.
Then I realized that this feeling was a feeling that I should be checking Facebook.
Then it dawned on me that this feeling was VERY similar to one I had experienced before:
- When I finally stopped smoking cigarettes
I had beat the cravings; a feeling AND knowledge that I wanted to smoke a cigarette.
I was left only with the vague feelings that I should be doing "something"; only later would I realize it was a desire to smoke a cigarette.
Note that happened even YEARS later:
- I would lock my screen, stand up from my desk chair (intent on doing "something"), and wonder what I was intending to do.
Only then would I realize it was an echo of steps I would take to prepare to smoke a cigarette.
I would then sit back down, unlock the screen, and return to whatever I was doing.
I'm fairly certain that in a few decades, Facebook and other social media won't be seen as "dystopian" but rather as the new smoking.
A population wide addiction with all the addictive behaviors and consequences that entails.
We will also look back to realize that teens were both the strongest addicts of social media and also the most vulnerable to addiction.
And nothing was done at the time, because most people regarded it as harmless or just something that everybody did.
I also care!
As an ex-pat Brit, I caught a few episodes on Dave a year or so back and I find it *Actually* Quite Interesting!
There's factoids and funny bits all through it - you can't find anything like it on 'merikan television (or at least I can't with my cable line-up).
Full Disclosure: I liked Blackadder, that Laywer program he came out with, Jeeves and Wooster (when it came out, less so now), Peters Friends and that Anonymous film he did.. :)
They began leaving when peepaw and meemaw befriended them years ago,
Many young people are not buying houses, and many are not able to afford rent on their own. The amount of adults living with parents today has skyrocketed from 30 years ago. The amount of renters and shared rent agreements has also skyrocketed in that same time.
College loans of 35K are certainly not high, but if you don't make enough money to live on you are going to pay the minimums.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
NEVER! Will people abandon social media! NEVER!
For they are like packs of retarded lemmings!
Unique individuals hell bent on overpaying for sub-par clothing with corporate logos!
SOYLANT GREEN IS PEOPLE! But it's so damned trendy, they don't care!
It is like the Matrix. When you're immersed in social media you are conditioned to be like everyone else. Another clone in the embryo farm.
Stephen Fry has *always* been a pompous jackass. For example, the entire premise of QI is "Stephen Fry gets to demonstrate how much smarter he is than you".
He is quite entertaining, but that does not mean he is not also a jerk.
When I deployed with the army they were plenty happy to have us disconnected from the public networks. Maybe Stephen should join up so he can be with like minded people.
He doesn't seem to have a problem with advertisers when they're paying him. Way back to the 80s, he's always been ready and eager to service them.
Is it ironic or sad that he announced this by posting to his website?
Shouldn't he have just sent this in a letter to everyone he knew?
-Styopa
It's not that QI is shit, it is actually quite interesting. And he was awesome in Blackadder. It's just his recent success has really gone to his head and he's just become a smug twat.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
All of the current personal networks are dystopian, designed to monetize personal information about you, and sell it to the highest bidder, while pretending to be your bestest bud and on your side.
That's why I keep my original DARPA accounts.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Has been opened. I have friends all over the world whom I would never have met were it not for social media. I met my wife in Second Life, and at the time, we lived 3000 miles apart. Humans are connecting creatures, and I think it's too late to reverse the social evolution toward using technology to connect. Even if you were to personally decide to only connect with people you can physically meet, whom would you talk to? Everyone else has their head buried in their smart phones. The very act of attempting to interrupt their attention automatically disqualifies you as someone worthy of socialization. I'm sure Stephen Fry could reasonably expect to be able to strike up a conversation with a stranger on a train. You and I cannot.
A more practical solution is for people to begin to take their privacy seriously and go to a little extra effort to secure it. This has already begun, to a limited extent and with younger people. My kids and their friends no longer use services like facebook to communicate, because they know how easy it is for parents and principals to access the information. We need to choose social media services that strike a different balance on the issues of cost and privacy, even and especially if that involves paying for them directly.
That Microsoft Word is required. I save documents in PDF format for them.
(Memo to self: did I just invent a poitically incorrect term?) (Arrrrrgh!).
Anyway, we currently have a lot of people living in the US who are not legally. We should also have them pay toward the national debt, shouldn't we?
And California has a higher percent than most other states.
APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit http://www.bing.com/search?q=%...
Less power/cpu/ram + IO use + complexity vs. local DNS servers, routers & antivirus w/ less security issues. Compliments firewalls (no layered filtering drivers firewalls use blocking less used IP addys, hosts block more used hostnames) & DNS (lightens server loads). Gets data via 10 security sites.
(Works vs. HTTP PUSH servers in Chrome w/ firewalls)
Ads steal speed you paid for, security (infecting us in openbid networks malware makers use), privacy by tracking + anonymity.
* Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/...
(Verified by Mr. S. Burn of Malwarebytes: "I've seen the code & yes it is safe" http://forum.hosts-file.net/vi... )
APK
P.S. - Hosts gain speed (hardcodes/adblocks), security (vs. bad sites/dns issues), reliability (vs. downed/poisoned dns), & anonymity (dns requestlogs/trackers) vs. other solutions w/ what you natively have. Hosts != blockable by ClarityRay like Adblock/UBlock/Ghostery
Don't know His Fryness? You miss out: a good man, even outside his more well-known TV comedy roles. Attracts a lot of the nastier sort of internet trolls who want to make him attempt suicide again.
Much of the internet is a nasty place, and I would not want to live in it full-time. A trolling of some innocent can make me incoherent. A nasty piece of porn can put me off humanity altogether; if they are having fun, why does no-one ever smile? Gaze into 4chan and beyond, and see Hell. But if you totally unplug, you kill the messenger; you remove your levening presence, and leave the mob to their excess. The excess is not the fault of the internet: a lot of humanity could do with improvement, and it is always been easier to destroy than to build. Unplugged you can still read the Daily Mail, but I think you (the public) have more sense. Plugged you can do the same. Keep it all at arm's length. Visit the internet. Re-visit the places you like. Have a look at something new, perhaps something edgy and dangerous, but don't let it bring you down to it's level.
Has El Fry aimed his essay beyond his target? He hasn't actually unplugged by his own admission. Maybe it is easier and more rousing to exhort us to some ideal of total abstinence, but those of us who fall short of this will probably be happier.
Has anyone not noticed the HUGELY PROMINENT Facebook, twitter etc icons right on that article on stephenfry.com ? They are on a bar that is permanently on the screen, robbing one's screen space from actually reading the article about... not needing these things.
I call BS.