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7 tweets,
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Finally finished “Status as a Service” and it’s just as good as everyone says it is. Some will say it’s obvious and already widely understood, but I’ve never seen anyone lay out the mecanics this clearly.
eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19…
eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19…
One additional thought:
I would love to see research on how the brain responds to online status gains vs. status built in other ways. I get some joy from doing a good tweet, but a lot more joy from being a respected part of a team.
I would love to see research on how the brain responds to online status gains vs. status built in other ways. I get some joy from doing a good tweet, but a lot more joy from being a respected part of a team.
To me the main value in Twitter is that I am able to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to meet. These relationships are the real social capital I actually care about.
Maybe this is my own idiosyncratic game I am playing? But probably our brains are adapted to crave the kind of social capital that mattered to our distant ancestors: feeling respected and protected within smallish groups.
This is where @PatrickDeneen would likely point out that the modern individual who floats rootlessly between temporary friend groups and lacks roots to any real community is doomed to unhappiness, no matter how many digital status tokens they are able to mine.
..and where @DavidSpinks would likely point out that work is not a good replacement for a real community either
It doesn’t seem impossible that you could re-create this feeling online. It’s just hard to get anyone to commit to anything, and commitment is the true essence of social capital.
