📑 Against Waldenponding

Venkatesh Rao provides a counter-narrative to the argument that we need to abandon social platforms perpetuated by Cal Newport. I think that the challenge is in finding some sort of balance. This is what I tried to capture in my post and I think is touched on in the #ProSocialWeb movement.

Marginalia

Whether you choose a Soft or Hard Waldenponding, and whether you choose it as an occasional break or a regularly scheduled retreat, just recognize that it is not a self-evidently more “moral” attitude then getting your mind all dirty and entangled in the “toxic” information streams.

We are all now part of a powerful global social computer in the cloud that is possibly the only mechanism we have available to tackle the big problems of the world that industrial age mechanisms are failing to cope with. We might as well get good at it. Do your part. Stay as plugged in as you can.