Thank you for your well-considered thoughts too! I always enjoy your blog.

I’ve yet to go on an immersive retreat, but it is one of my resolutions this year. I hope to do it this fall. And you’re right, it would be an effective Walden Pond. But we two can afford to do that. My brother cannot, and he is someone who could definitely use it. I find it’s very helpful to keep in mind what other people have access too, in terms of checking against my own flights of fancy and to help ground me.

I think your thoughts about learning to use new technology effectively is key here. It is what can keep us from tumbling headlong into the new age, out of control, just as learning to control and use our minds correctly can help us deal with our lives. I have experiential data to back this up, in my job in web development for a university. The professors who step up and learn the new tech, no matter how successful they are, deal with it better than the ones who get pulled along or who resist. Even the adopters describe feeling overwhelmed, though. I keep hearing that it would be nice to have a year off from any upgrades and new technologies.

PS – It’s been 3 years since I’ve studied Hegel, and it still gives me a headache. I’m more of a Spinozan anyways! Which didn’t win me many friends in the department.

Love your points and agree with all of them. Not as distinct and different as my own but as complimentary emphases.

As far as answering your question, “Where is the modern day Walden Pond in the social media context?” I have a couple of answers to that.

One is in somebodies individual effort, of people who choose to “go dark” for periods of time and who benefit from it. Personally, I spend at least a month each year doing meditation intensives where there is absolutely no access to technology–no phones, no e-mail, in fact no talking to other people whatsoever. It’s just like Walden Pond. I find that extremely valuable.

The other way has to do with these services actually providing ways of setting parameters. Even with BrightKite you can decide to not be on the radar, to not have an account, to choose which services to use and how much to use them. Any good service will allow you the ability to customize how much you want to be involved.

The problem though, like you mention, is that there are larger cultural and technological contexts happening in the background which we have very little influence over. In this day and age you need to adopt certain technologies to be “successful” at certain things. That’s just a fact, and sometimes a difficult one. The way I’ve dealt with this fact, besides maintaining a generally optimistic tone, is to see things in terms of an evolutionary context. I hinted to this at my post with differentiation and integration, or as Hegel put it thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Seeing that great difficulty often proceeds evolutionary leaps is one way of not seeing the social milieu we’re currently dealing with as regressive or dangerous. And I think it’s a more accurate view.

Thanks again for your well-considered thoughts.

You’re right, it was a little cynical sounding, but my intention was to come across as realistic. An optimistic view of the future doesn’t negate the difficulties that have to happen to arrive in that optimistic future. I’d even suggest that an optimistic view could blind someone to the situation happening now, and derail the better future.

My concern is that I feel there needs to be a balance until things sort out, and in this case there needs to be a place where technology and social networking don’t reach. Wether it’s for the curmudgeonly few who don’t like nasty tech, or for the rebels, or for the free thinkers who can provide an intellectual and philosophical counterbalance to the overall movement of society, the balance tends to come from people who can see the whole plan and provide insight as to what the general direction is, what we have lost along the way, how the human condition is changing. Take Thoreau as an example. My concern is that such space is becoming increasingly rare. Even taking into account that such a thinker must be connected and experienced with the current situation to render a valid critique, that person still needs space. Where is the modern day Walden Pond in the social media context?

Well maybe a super-wealthy VC will pop in, read this post, and send you a few Mil. It’s probably happened before.

additionally, casey and i have a fantastic real world idea for the application of social networking to meat space. just needs a shitload of startup money! mwaaaah!