I must confess to giggling at the authors examples of 'signal':
> "Lots of signal. Lots of friends becoming parents.
> Getting engaged. Couples falling in love. Babies. [...]
> Friends and acquaintances off on adventures. Beautiful
> mountain photos [...] Family outings. [...] orphanage
> a good friend of mine runs in Nepal. [...] updates on
> the dog back home on the east coast"
All that stuff sounds like the expected output of a random human condition generator. Knowing those things wouldn't change my life at all. I trust that that kind of stuff is happening all on its own without having to take any of my attention.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. However, I suspect he may be missing the mark because the audience he's addressing with his "just use hide!" may well be like me and find all that stuff inane. 'Use hide to reveal the signal under the noise' doesn't work when there is no signal.
Yeah, I had a similar reaction. I guess I'm selfish: I just don't care about what's going on in others' lives if it doesn't impact me. I also don't share what's going on in my life with the Internet, unless I think it would interest or help someone else like me. (E.g. I started a blog last fall. It has 3 posts. Every post has over 700 words. Social media just isn't my bag.)
I tried using Facebook for about a month, and got overwhelmed with the amount of boring and infuriating crap that goes through the service. It felt like reading chain emails from the 90s. Why would anyone subject themselves to that level of banality?
As you say, different strokes for different folks. It just doesn't do anything for me.
> "Lots of signal. Lots of friends becoming parents.
> Getting engaged. Couples falling in love. Babies. [...]
> Friends and acquaintances off on adventures. Beautiful
> mountain photos [...] Family outings. [...] orphanage
> a good friend of mine runs in Nepal. [...] updates on
> the dog back home on the east coast"
All that stuff sounds like the expected output of a random human condition generator. Knowing those things wouldn't change my life at all. I trust that that kind of stuff is happening all on its own without having to take any of my attention.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. However, I suspect he may be missing the mark because the audience he's addressing with his "just use hide!" may well be like me and find all that stuff inane. 'Use hide to reveal the signal under the noise' doesn't work when there is no signal.