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by neuroma
1520 days ago
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Anorexia means without appetite.
We are demonstrably full of hunger for culture. But the quality and nature of that culture is changing rapidly with modern tech. I think the author's metaphor is better framed around nutritional value.
Modern culture is rich in and dominated by junk. Consuming it builds junk values and junk ideas. |
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What the author (Luke Burgis) refers to as "thick" desires are, to me, simply the age old depth of human values - messy, complex, emotional. And he paints the countervailing ethos as "thin" - one dimensional man (to use Herbert Marcuse's term).
But I am not sure his food metaphor works as vibrantly as he would like, to describe culture, and in some places I think he gets it backwards. Also, one should more sensitive throwing around words like "anorexic" without thinking what that condition entails.
When I wrote Digital Vegan, it's original title was going to be something like "Digital self-defence" [1]. But I wanted to avoid too strong a combatative metaphor for that book. The Cody Brown quote that is the final title came late, in recognition of the hostility towards those wanting more control over their diet, whether digital or culinary, and the courage needed to take a principled stance.
But control, or the lack of it, and compensatory behaviours is at the heart of many problems. I had been reading Susie Albach's Bodies about dysmorphia, abuse and self-perception. The relation of these to technology had a big influence on me. However, reading about teen suicides, now linked to social media and having in some ways supplanted eating disorders in focus, led me to add this to the preface:
" Throughout this book I use the metaphor of food and consumption to talk about technology. In no way do I mean disrespect or to trivialise the serious conditions of anorexia, bulimia, avoidant eating, or obesity. Indeed, I believe that many forms of technological and material abuse share the same root causes. "
Whether we build ourselves and our culture "thin" or "thick" revolves around our ability to control what we take in, our knowledge of how it affects us, and our own extant self-image in relation to what we seek out.
[1] Thats phrase has been knocking around the cryptoparty scene since 2010, and Snowden uses it in "Permanent Record".