TLDR 155

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 155

Published: 2018-06-22 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 155. Seeing the human condition.

I received a couple of great emails this week that pushed my thinking. Steve McCrea sent along a video and a couple posts I started writing about on my breadcrumbs site. I also received a lot of feedback from Nate Green that I think will end up soon in a blog post or future publication. Green sent me along his Twitter list of people and groups that are critical of technology and social media. I'm going to clean up my Twitter list soon, and this helps.

This week I posted the following:

Interviewing my digital domains - This post is a response to a series of "interview questions" posted by Alan Levine about developing our own domains.
Chris Aldrich response to "Interviewing my digital domains" - As a response to the earlier post, Chris Aldrich added commentary using Hypothesis, and then pulled this all in to a post on his site. This post helps me document and think through his process and product.
Video: Closing the loop on feedback using Hypothesis annotations - This video is a quick response to the annotation post and this post from Aldrich. I think this is a big deal, and I hope you dig in a bit and let me know what you think.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Domain Ownership: Alan Levine's interview questions prompt reflection on developing personal domains, with Chris Aldrich demonstrating Hypothesis annotation feedback loops.
Fact vs Opinion Crisis: Pew Research reveals Americans struggle to distinguish factual statements from opinion, raising concerns about news literacy.
Disinformation Biology: Rushkoff, Dunagan, and Pescovitz examine how media viruses and computational propaganda weaponize information, suggesting social relationships matter more than tech solutions.
Digital Orbiting: The practice of maintaining distant digital presence after leaving someone's offline life creates psychological complexity for both orbiter and orbited.
Seeing Others: Truly seeing people in educational and social contexts builds connections essential for social-emotional learning and keeping at-risk students engaged.

📺 Watch

Dan Mancina: Skateboarding with vision loss

What happens when you have a passion, but your body gives out? What happens to your passion?

Imagine that one day, at a young age, you're told that something was wrong with your vision. Like a race against time, each day your vision deteriorates a little bit more until one day you wake up and, like that, your sight is gone.

An inspiring look at Dan Mancina, a skateboarder from just outside of Detroit, who continues pursuing his passion for skateboarding despite losing his sight. The story explores adaptation, persistence, and redefining what's possible when circumstances change dramatically.

📚 Read

Pew Research: Distinguishing between factual and opinion statements in the news

A new poll by the Pew Research Center suggests people are having difficulty telling the difference between fact and opinion.

Pew Director of Journalism Research Amy Mitchell said the study "raises caution" around news consumers' ability "to sort news quickly."

"At this point, the U.S. does not seem to have become completely detached from what is factual and what is not. But with the vast majority of Americans getting at least some news online, the gaps in ability across population groups to sort news quickly and correctly raises caution," said Mitchell.

The study presented participants with five factual statements and five opinion statements, asking them to classify each. Many struggled to correctly identify which were facts (verifiable through evidence) and which were opinions (based on values or beliefs).

This difficulty in distinguishing fact from opinion has profound implications for news literacy, media consumption, and democratic discourse. If people can't identify what's verifiable versus what's subjective interpretation, they can't effectively evaluate claims or hold institutions accountable.

The Biology of Disinformation: Interview with Rushkoff, Pescovitz, and Dunagan

Douglas Rushkoff, Jake Dunagan, and David Pescovitz all wrote a research paper titled "The Biology of Disinformation". The paper is about how media viruses, bots and computational propaganda have redefined how information is weaponized for propaganda campaigns.

While technological solutions may seem like the most practical and effective remedy, fortifying social relationships that define human communication may be the best way to combat "ideological warfare" that is designed to push us toward isolation.

The biological metaphor is apt: disinformation spreads like virus, exploiting vulnerabilities in our information immune system. But unlike computer viruses that require technical patches, information viruses exploit social and psychological vulnerabilities. The solution isn't just better algorithms or fact-checking, but strengthening the social fabric and human connections that make us resilient to manipulation.

You might also enjoy this interview with the three of them by Mondo 2000.

Orbiting is a "strategic way to prevent the door from shutting completely on a former relationship." It's that person that leaves your offline life, but follows you (or continues to follow you) online. They maintain their distance, but leave little clues to let you know they're watching. This could be going back in time and liking your posts to keep you guessing.

I have not heard this term before, but I like it. The post explains many of the psychological and sociological challenges to the orbited as well as the orbiter.

For the orbited person, it creates confusion and prevents closure—they can't fully move on because the other person maintains digital presence. For the orbiter, it allows keeping options open without commitment or direct engagement.

This phenomenon reveals how social media creates new relationship dynamics that didn't exist before. In pre-digital eras, when relationships ended, people simply stopped being in each other's lives. Now we have this liminal space of continued observation without interaction, creating ambiguity and potential distress.

The Power of Being Seen

How well do you know—and see—the people around you? This could be students in classes, colleagues at work, or your next door neighbor?

After being cautioned by one of my colleagues about the challenges of "high tech" losing "high touch" I now end some of my keynotes and classes by having individuals look each other in the eye and say "I see you." They all laugh, and it's awkward, but it's a reminder of how much we don't look at each other in the offline spaces.

In our schools, this is a big key to social emotional learning. It also helps keep kids in school, and make connections that help students at risk.

The practice of truly seeing others—recognizing their humanity, acknowledging their presence, making them feel valued—is fundamental to building relationships and creating inclusive environments. Students who feel seen by teachers and peers are more likely to engage, persist, and thrive.

The awkwardness of the exercise reveals how rarely we actually do this. We're physically present but digitally distracted, or we look past people rather than at them, or we see categories and roles rather than individuals.

Here are the 14 habits of highly miserable people

Cloe Madanes gives us some advice at how to succeed at self-sabotage (or, really, how to avoid it). She describes each habit, and provides an exercise to help you kick the habit.

Be afraid, be very afraid of economic loss
Practice sustained boredom
Give yourself a negative identity
Pick fights
Attribute bad intentions
Whatever you do, do it only for personal gain
Avoid gratitude
Always be alert and in a state of anxiety
Blame your parents
Don't enjoy life's pleasures
Ruminate
Glorify or vilify the past
Find a romantic partner to reform
Be critical

The satirical framing—instructions for achieving misery—makes the advice more memorable and less preachy than typical self-help. By inverting the typical "how to be happy" formula, it highlights patterns we might not recognize in ourselves when stated positively.

Each habit represents common cognitive distortions and behavioral patterns that undermine well-being. Recognizing these patterns in yourself is first step toward changing them.

The importance of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation for long-term growth

This post on "19 of the 'top highlighted ideas' from millions of readers" made the rounds through my social feed this week.

I think the best response came in this post from George Couros as he reflects on balance and the struggle between work and self-improvement.

The productivity culture emphasizes constant optimization, learning, and achievement. But sustainable growth requires rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. Grinding without recovery leads to burnout, not excellence.

Couros challenges the assumption that more is always better—more reading, more learning, more producing. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop producing. Recovery isn't wasted time; it's essential infrastructure for sustained performance.

This tension between doing and being, between productivity and presence, runs through this entire issue: Can we see others if we're always performing? Can we distinguish fact from opinion if we're consuming information without pause for reflection? Can we resist disinformation if we're too exhausted to think critically?

🤔 Consider

"The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us who walk this sphere, The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres." — Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman's meditation on seeing and transformation captures this issue's theme of the human condition and our capacity to perceive beyond ourselves. The phrase "seeing the human condition" implies both observing humanity from outside and experiencing it from within—the simultaneous positions of witness and participant. The digital domains we create become spheres we walk, spaces where we're seen and see others. The struggle to distinguish fact from opinion tests our sight—can we see clearly or do we see only what confirms what we already believe? Disinformation clouds our vision, while orbiting allows seeing without being fully present. The power of being truly seen requires making ourselves vulnerable to another's gaze. Whitman reminds us that sight itself changes—how we see, what we see, whether we see at all. The "subtle air breathed by beings like us" suggests commonality even as we occupy different spheres, whether physical or digital. This issue asks repeatedly: What does it mean to truly see? What does it mean to be seen? And what changes in us through the act of seeing and being seen?