I first quit Facebook in 2010, in response to a talk Eben Moglen gave at NYU about Facebook’s privacy-destroying ways; one of his most memorable lines was: The East German Stasi used to have to deploy a fleet of undercover agents and wiretaps to find out what people did, who they met, what they ate,Continue reading “Leaving Facebook: You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide”
Tag Archives: social networking
Report On Brooklyn College Teach-In On ‘Web Surveillance And Security’
Yesterday, as part of ‘The Brooklyn College Teach-In & Workshop Series on Resistance to the Trump Agenda,’ I facilitated a teach-in on the topic of ‘web surveillance and security.’ During my session I made note of some of the technical and legal issues that are play in these domains, and how technology and law haveContinue reading “Report On Brooklyn College Teach-In On ‘Web Surveillance And Security’”
My First Phone Number
I grew up–till the age of eleven–without a telephone in my household. A phone line was a rarity–expensive, hard to obtain with a long waiting line–even for the Indian middle-class, and in any case my family lived for the most part on air force stations. But even when we lived in the city, we madeContinue reading “My First Phone Number”
Nietzsche On The Interpersonal Dynamics Of Social Networks
This afternoon, I sat down to read through the portions of Human, All Too Human (Section VI – ‘Man in Society’ or ‘In Relations with Others’) that I had assigned to my Social Philosophy class, and once again, was struck by how acute and perspicuous so many of its aphorisms are–especially when it comes to anticipating theContinue reading “Nietzsche On The Interpersonal Dynamics Of Social Networks”
Are There No Ethically Uncompromised Lunches In The Universe?
Once upon a time a farmer told his neighbors that they could use his land for ‘free’–as a kind of community recreational space. His neighbors were told they could set up little stalls. where they could play music, show off their handicrafts, display family photo albums, and of course, walk over to their friends’ spacesContinue reading “Are There No Ethically Uncompromised Lunches In The Universe?”
Reflections On ‘Imagined Communities’ – II: Newspaper Reading As Modern Prayer
In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, New York, 2006, pp. 34-35), Benedict Anderson writes: [T]he newspaper is merely an ‘extreme form’ of the book, a book sold on a colossal scale, but of ephemeral popularity. Might we say: one-day best-sellers? The obsolescence of the newspaper on the morrow of its printing….createsContinue reading “Reflections On ‘Imagined Communities’ – II: Newspaper Reading As Modern Prayer”
What My Facebook Like Means
Facebook users often express dissatisfaction over the limited range of options available to them for responding to posts made on their newsfeed by their ‘friends.’ (I wish there was a ‘dislike’ button! I wish I could like this a thousand times! I wish I could tell you how much I liked this!) My sympathies areContinue reading “What My Facebook Like Means”
Twitter’s Design And The Deadly Sin Of Task Modification
Over at Slate, David Auerbach has an excellent analysis of how the interface of a social networking tool–in this case, Twitter–can severely degrade the discourse it is supposed to to be facilitating: Twitter’s founders initially formulated it as a broadcast tool to publish announcements to your friends and to the world, and to that extentContinue reading “Twitter’s Design And The Deadly Sin Of Task Modification”
Facebook and Writers’ Status Messages
My last post on Facebook led me to think a bit more its–current and possible–integration into our lives, especially those conducted online. As ‘net users are by now aware, almost any site you visit on the ‘net features a Facebook button so that you can indicate whether you ‘Like’ the page and thus, share itContinue reading “Facebook and Writers’ Status Messages”
Facebook and Impoverished Sharing
A few days ago, on this blog, I excerpted a couple of passages from Richard Klein‘s Cigarettes are Sublime, and wrote of a little episode in my life centered on smoking cigarettes as a way to kill time. Once I had written the post and published it here, as is usual, I posted links toContinue reading “Facebook and Impoverished Sharing”
Samir Chopra 