To Tumble or not Tumble.

“I’m really scared for my generation, you know. The thing that scares me most is Tumblr. I hate what Tumblr has become. Because it like, it reminds me of those clique-y girls in high school that used to make fun of everyone else and define what was cool, but in five years, when you all graduate, that shit doesn’t matter. No one gives a fuck about that shit. Instead of kids going out and making their own moments, they’re just taking these images and living vicariously through other people’s moments. It just kills me. Then you’ll meet them and they’re just the biggest turkey in the world. They don’t actually embody any of those things. They just emulate. It’s scary man, simulation life that we’re living. It scares me.” - Drake on Tumblr | Ruby Pseudo Wants a Word

I read this about two days ago. At first I was shocked and it actually made me think about how I’ve been spending my time and if updating this blog has been occupying way too much of my time. But this is only a personal matter and no one’s business.

When I reread this thought, I had to confront it with scepticism.

The first thing to point out is that it is extremely dangerous too make generalisations just like that. If some A is B and some B is C, then some A is definitely C. No. It’s not. Thus, I assume that we are only speaking in very very general terms, about what might be happening, if that is maybe an unwanted consequence.

And I’m speaking of ‘consequence’ because demonising ‘Tumblr’ or ‘Internet’ follows the same pattern of logic as demonising a pencil, just because someone used it to stab another. Tumblr or whatever else, are just a means of communication. It’s not good or bad on its own. The way each and every user uses it defines its utility or harmfulness. But for the user himself. Not for everyone.

Then, I went to high school too and I’ve met those ‘clique-y’ girls that make fun of everyone. This ‘clique-y’ girls are not just part of the high school life. People are generally judgemental. People will always judge. That’s what we love to do. So, whether I’m doing it in your face, or posting about it, I’m really not sure if there’s a difference. Not allowing people to express their opinions, regardless of what these are, is totalitarian to me.

About defining cool. I hardly believe people here have the power to define what’s cool and what’s not. And even if that’s the case, let’s just accept it. It happens. It has always happened and it will keep on happening. Forever. And ever. I think that those post-teenage 20+y.o. who are self-proclaimed ‘Hipsters’ are the best example. This is a trend. It’s in. Most of us want to be like them. In five years it’s gonna be so out, that most of them will delete (or I should say tear since they’re using analogue cameras anyway) all their photos. Should one have something against them? No. That’s just fashion. For example, the fashion designers, the fashion magazines, the fashion industry in general decides what’s cool and what’s not and then imposes that on us. Take into account the psychology of the mass. We have to have someone to decide what’s cool and what’s not. Otherwise we’d be like sheep, scared by the wolf (our own imagination) running here and there and finally falling off the cliff.

Living through other people’s lives. Well, don’t we do it.. like.. everyday? Do we listen to our music everyday? Do we watch the movies that we filmed? Do we read the books that we wrote? Do we go to the gallery to see the paintings that we painted? Do we talk to our friends only about our lives and never hear about theirs? (No, wait, that happens sometimes…) We live our own lives but then again we also live each other’s life. We share experiences and make use of the experiences of others.

What I’ve tried to present is exactly the opposite points one could suggest regarding that matter. I’m not saying that all of these are true. Once should have the chance to listen to both sides, before making up one’s mind.

I, too, believe that things with the Internet (etc.) can get out of control. That people could spend hundreds of hours blogging and reblogging without any apparent reason. That people could get vicious, that people could get obsessed. That… that…

But this is only one side of it. Let’s not forget that everyone is free to choose a means of communication the way he thinks as best. Now, about how to achieve that, well, I find these three passages most enlightening:

First of all, μέτρον ἄριστον (Métron áriston) “Moderation is best”. Or, μηδὲν ἄγαν (mēdèn ágan “Nothing in excess”. What exactly that might mean and how to achieve that is perceftly defined by Aristoteles in ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ and Plato in ‘The Republic’.

For Aristoteles, character properly understood, meaning one’s virtue or vice, is not just any tendency or habit but something which affects when we feel pleasure or pain. A virtuous person feels pleasure at the most beautiful or noble (kalos) actions. A person who is not virtuous will often find his or her perceptions of what is most pleasant to be misleading. For this reason, any concern with virtue or politics requires consideration of pleasure and pain. When a person does virtuous actions, for example by chance, or under advice, they are not yet necessarily a virtuous person. It is not like in the productive arts, where the thing being made is what is judged as well made or not. To truly be a virtuous person, one’s virtuous actions must meet three conditions: (a) they are done knowingly, (b) they are chosen for their own sakes, and (c) they are chosen according to a stable disposition (not at a whim, or in any way that the acting person might easily change his choice about). And just knowing what would be virtuous is not enough. According to Aristotle’s analysis, there are three kinds of things which come to be present in the soul that virtue is: a feeling (pathos), an inborn predisposition or capacity (dunamis), or a stable disposition which has been acquired (hexis).

Then again Plato (through the voice of Socrates) in Republic, 4th Book 433a mentions:

“Listen then,” said I, “and learn if there is anything in what I say. For what we laid down in the beginning as a universal requirement when we were founding our city, this I think, or some form of this, is justice. And what we did lay down, and often said, you recall, was that each one man must perform one social service in the state for which his nature is best adapted.” “Yes, we said that.” “And again that to do one’s own business and not to be a busybody is justice[…].

So I would suggest that everyone does what he wants and minds only his own business. And that no one should give a fuck about the criticism of others. Not even mine. Thanks for reading.