Omar explains his use of Facebook by saying, “ the reason that I am now having
such philosophical discussions as I am having on Facebook is not that it is a
better medium for this but that there are more people.” I would suggest that in
some respects Facebook is a better medium. If what you are looking for is a
quiet bar with congenial regulars, lit-ideas did, for many years, provide that
kind of space. Facebook is not a bar. Facebook is a town, a city, a world.
I agree with Omar that more people is part of that. When I post on the
Ethnographers Facebook page, my posts reach around 700 people. When I post on
the Open Anthropology Cooperative Facebook page, they could be reaching as many
a 12,000. More than quantity, however, I value the diversity of those who read
my posts and care enough to give me “likes” or, far more rarely, unfortunately
write back in response. I now have readers in India, Pakistan, and Africa,
Japan, China, and Taiwan as well as Europe and North America. When I cast my
bread upon the waters (messages in bottles tossed into the Ocean might be a
better metaphor), I know that my words travel far and wide and are not
swallowed up in the archives of what appears to be a small and shrinking e-mail
group. For me, that is a plus.
The diversity I like is more than geographical. I use Facebook to post things
that I hope will be taken seriously. I also post food porn and recipes,
photographs documenting my travels and the people I have met. I note that
philosophy and food porn are not mutually exclusive. My networks overlap where
some people I correspond with seem interested in both. Philosophy is, how shall
I say it, part of life, not cut off and isolated from it. (Here I also see a
reason why David’s chickens and Lawrence’s poetry keep me returning to
lit-ideas.)
On the technical side of the medium, I like it that Facebook makes it simple to
post photographs and links. I would like it to become a rule of academic
discussion that when someone points to an academic source, they provide a link
to it and that when a book or journal is mentioned an image of the cover is
provided. In a world of increasingly fragmented knowledge, the assumption that
our readers know what we are talking about is increasingly dubious. The
teacherly assumption that telling people to read X and assuming that they have
access to a library and will search and find it for themselves is demonstrably
absurd.
I also like it very much that Facebook allows me to edit my posts and comments.
Typos and other infelicities always creep in when I write in stream of
consciousness mode. It is nice to be able to make corrections without having to
resend an email.
Would anyone here be interested in moving lit-ideas to Facebook?
John
Sent from my iPad
On Mar 26, 2019, at 7:34, Torgeir Fjeld <t.fjeld1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Right, well if you like to have those sorts of exchanges on Facebook, that's
within your realm of decisionality. However, were lit-ideas to maintain a
civilised form it may just be that some who prefer the type of speech we find
in dusty books and long-gone literary genres would be enticed to post.
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld
https://torgeirfjeld.com/
Download the Introduction to my latest book -- rock philosophy: meditations
on art and desire -- for free from https://bit.ly/2vMGwVs. Get a 24% discount ;
by using code CFC159723D56 on checkout at the publisher
https://vernonpress.com/book/494. It is also available from Amazon: ;
https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Philosophy-Meditations-Art-Desire/dp/1622734416/
On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 at 23:14, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, the reason that I am now having such philosophical discussions as I am
having on Facebook is not that it is a better medium for this but that there
are more people. A bar that has a lot of people coming in has even more
people coming in because of that. The debates on Facebook are not typically
more productive or more polite than those we have been having here, if
anything the opposite. I have already opened the day on FB by telling
someone to shut the fuck up and suggesting that they have brain cancer,
while he also called me a few names. And this is on a quiet day.
O.K.
On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 10:59 PM Torgeir Fjeld <t.fjeld1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear all,
On Saturday, John wrote:
Then a now familiar process unfolded, which appears to be independent of
the
form (email-list, blog, SMS....) of the electronic forum in which the
discussion occurs. A group is formed. During the opening phase, when
people are
just getting to know each other, conversation is lively. Positions are
staked
out. Then, over time, the range of topics shrinks. An handful of regulars
put
on the same Punch and Judy shows. Others slip away. At present, I
sometimes enjoy reading David’s livestock tales and Lawrence’s
poetry. Of Grice and Wittgenstein I’ve had enough. The occasional sputters
of
epistemological fury leave me cold.
Some debate ensued. In retrospeact it is clear that John was right. He
shouldn't have been, but he was. Coversation set out as lively, positions
were staked out, then the topics shrunk, a few regulars punched each other,
ending in "sputters of [more or less] epistemological fury."
When it comes to particular topics and personal likes and dislikes, the
above preferences are John's; however, the inability to let go of a grudge
can weigh down on a fragile conversation forum, such as this. The reason so
many previous posters now prefer algorithm-fuelled social media is that the
wind blows better there. After the storm, there's still lots of diversions
in their feed, and even if the topics are less philosophical, at least the
tone is not generally hostile.
This poster cherishes all those who post here. Everyone on this list has a
particular value, and that value is not reducable to their contributions
here. In other words, we have a value in our selves: by our mere being
there is something of worth cherishing. There is no necessary correllation
between sophisticated speech and elevated intellectual content; however,
there seems to be a greater attraction to exercise our reason in an
environment that invites people of culture. Let's try to make an effort to
remain cultivated in the face of adversity in our mutual relations. It
really is in our own best interest.
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld
https://torgeirfjeld.com/
Download the Introduction to my latest book -- rock philosophy: meditations
on art and desire -- for free from https://bit.ly/2vMGwVs. Get a 24% ;
discount by using code CFC159723D56 on checkout at the publisher
https://vernonpress.com/book/494. It is also available from Amazon: ;
https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Philosophy-Meditations-Art-Desire/dp/1622734416/
