I’ve made it a habit, when I’m surfing the Web, of not clicking on links to sites or articles that I don’t want to encourage. If I click, something somewhere will record one more view of the ads on that page, so the publisher and the advertisers will get the message that this subject is popular and that the link was presented in an acceptable way. So even if it’s not trackable to me, the stats will still tip in favor of something I don’t approve.
Consequently, I don’t read articles on Hillary Clinton’s clothing or “making things great again”. And of course I never click on Outbrain or Taboola clickbait when I can spot it.
Yes, this is a form of self-censorship. And I’m contributing to the polarisation of the Web, too. (By coincidence, it also helps keep me sane.) And I could choose to use an ad blocker. That’s not what I want to discuss here.
Symptom:
Yesterday, I was going through a box of old magazines in the basement, deciding what to keep. A headline on the cover of an old magazine mentioned a photo interview with some cute local celebrity. My first reflex was to not turn the page to the article because that would improve the stats on that trash article.
Does this kind of thing happen to anybody else? Any other examples of having Cyberspace reflexes towards things in the Real World?
The biggest problem I see in this context is the mythopoeic effect social media and media sensationalism has on people’s fundamental understanding of their environment. Screening fact from fiction with real value and meaning has become increasingly difficult. Recent “fake news” events have brought this issue into focus.
When hand-writing something, I have caught myself pausing in surprise after a “typo” doesn’t autocorrect. It’s a split second, but it’s real, and it makes me laugh every time.
In my business we see a real generation gap. Young people have internalized at an early age that there’s an undo button for everything. You can always backspace, or autocorrect, or recycle bin, or whatever.
When you move them into an environment where an ounce of prevention is worth 10,000 pounds of cure, it’s very hard to get them to internalize the idea that there is no going back; no do-overs. You must get it right the first time. Every time.
Part of this is eternal human nature, the difference between quick youth and measured maturity. But it seems to be rather amplified in the current era. The “young” people I’m talking about are 30 years old with 5-10 years experience in the industry. Despite that they still have a default expectation of an undo button or backspace key.
I’ve done a bad stroke while painting, and had the immediate desire to do Ctrl+z, complete with a left hand finger twitch. Hasn’t been as much of a problem since quitting tablet drawing, though.
You can go on YouTube and see videos of babies and very small children presented with paper magazines who are confused when their tablet gestures (e.g., using two fingers to enlarge a picture) don’t work. (Edited to add, here’s one but there are many others.)
There are many kids today who have used touchscreen monitors from a very young age.
I read two weekly magazines on my tablet. One is as a pdf that I can zoom and scroll with the usual finger gestures. The other is delivered as a quasi-ebook in a dedicated full-screen = full page reading app.
I’m forever trying to zoom the unzoomable one. Pisses me right off.
I also try to touchscreen my non-touchscreen laptop. Always feel silly, but I keep doing it.
My ebook reader has a clock in the lower right of the screen. When I’m reading something on paper, I often glance at the lower right of the page to see the time. I also sometimes double-tap on words for definitions.
I have preferred typing to writing for almost my entire life. I had my first computer in the early 80s and became a pretty darn good touch typist starting from around third grade. I’ve lived most of my life in the 80-120 wpm range. Still, hand writing had its use in my brain and I used the right tool for the right job to to speak.
But in the last year or two… God, I’m so tired of having to move a pen precisely to form all those shapes. I want to just wiggle the pen around around a bit and have letters appear on the paper. Why doesn’t it know what I want?!
It’s a split second, but it’s real, and it makes me laugh every time.