Characterizing GPS as Me-Centric is right on. In fact, much of the web and almost all of social media is Me-Centric. Blogging and social media use are me-centric in that all the focus of attention is on me, my opinions, my knowledge, my pictures and other UGC. It is about getting others attention to my creations, my productions. Thus I am sympathetic to writers who characterize web-work as narcissistic. One can argue that pre-web creative work is also narcissistic, but I think most would agree that it is far less so. With regard to GPS, I have had a GPS in my car for 10 years but rarely use it. However, when I rent a car in other cities, I always rent a GPS and use my iPhone GPS for traffic AND I always study maps too. And I still get lost sometimes. All these technologies have their limitations, but multiple technologies are the most effective, if you know how to use them. GPS does shape your conceptional vision by leaving out context, but it warps the mind far less seriously than social media. Ron At 08:53 AM 9/7/2011, you wrote: >Had this thought too late for The Book (copyediting responses >shipped yesterday), but too good to keep to myself ...snip... >CITASA mailing list >CITASA@list.citasa.org >http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org Ron Anderson, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, 952-473-5910 Websites: http://umn.edu/home/rea and http://www.CompassionateSocieties.org Ron Anderson, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, 952-473-5910 Websites: http://umn.edu/home/rea and http://www.CompassionateSocieties.org

In what sense has the creation of art ever NOT been centered on "my knowledge, my pictures, etc."? In many ways, personal social media pages can mirror a kind of salon--there is a clear host/owner of the space, but the discussions that take place in the space are not restricted to that host as their only possible subject. Discussion of personal pictures and updates is most often focused on *shared* experiences; when I post about my pregnancy on Facebook, for example, I get a lot of responses from others about their personal experiences of pregnancy. I also post a lot of links to political and social media stories, and while this is not the only mode of social media use, it is a common one, and one that is strengthened by Facebook's news feed algorithms (links are more likely to show up on others' feeds that simple status updates). Those links tend to promote a lot of discussion that is hardly "me"-centered, as well as the propagation of information when other people in the network choose to "share" them. And of course, one major argument from my dissertation is that the presentation of self on social network sites is, while not uniquely collaborative (though Goffman's concept of performance teams is certainly highlighted), perhaps uniquely vulnerable to being unsettled by others. The documentary nature of the space means that information from others contradicting one's chosen presentation will be visible to a very large audience for an indefinite period of time--even if removed by the owner of the space, the possibility remains that it was seen by others before action could be taken. Of course, a particularly narcissistic person may be particularly apt at a skill set focused on minimizing this kind of damage--and that's not unique to social media, either. One element of successful narcissism has always been possession of such a skill set. --- Cabell Gathman cgathman@ssc.wisc.edu 608-262-6277 "It should be recalled that the study of symbols is, at very least, the study of the means by which human beings lie. Society, as Simmel (1954) reminded us, is based on secrecy, deception, and lies. It could not be otherwise." --Peter K. Manning, Organizational Communication On Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:21:10 -0500, Ron Anderson <rea@umn.edu> wrote: > Characterizing GPS as Me-Centric is right on. In fact, much of the > web and almost all of social media is Me-Centric. Blogging and social > media use are me-centric in that all the focus of attention is on me, > my opinions, my knowledge, my pictures and other UGC. It is about > getting others attention to my creations, my productions. Thus I am > sympathetic to writers who characterize web-work as narcissistic. One > can argue that pre-web creative work is also narcissistic, but I think > most would agree that it is far less so. > > With regard to GPS, I have had a GPS in my car for 10 years but > rarely use it. However, when I rent a car in other cities, I always > rent a GPS and use my iPhone GPS for traffic AND I always study maps > too. And I still get lost sometimes. All these technologies have their > limitations, but multiple technologies are the most effective, if you > know how to use them. GPS does shape your conceptional vision by > leaving out context, but it warps the mind far less seriously than > social media. > Ron > > At 08:53 AM 9/7/2011, you wrote: >>Had this thought too late for The Book (copyediting responses >shipped yesterday), but too good to keep to myself > ...snip... >>CITASA mailing list >>CITASA@list.citasa.org >>http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org > > Ron Anderson, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, 952-473-5910 > Websites: http://umn.edu/home/rea and > http://www.CompassionateSocieties.org > > > Ron Anderson, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, 952-473-5910 > Websites: http://umn.edu/home/rea and > http://www.CompassionateSocieties.org > > _______________________________________________ > CITASA mailing list > CITASA@list.citasa.org > http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org