Software engineer & founder of @RailsBridge and @LivableCode. Currently stirring the pot at @SalesforceUX. She/her. 
Twitter at the speed of parenting
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It was written in 1973, but the author must have had a magic mirror to 45 years in the future, because their characterization of instagram influencers is just so spot on.
The story is this one. There’s A LOT of plot, & a lot of prescient imaginings, including: - fast always-on internet - realtime streams of audience sentiment used to tune content in realtime - scripted “reality” tv I’m still sifting through the layers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Was_Plugged_In …
Another interesting layer is that the story was written by a fierce feminist woman, writing as a man for an audience of men.
In one part she’s explaining why a woman with a traumatic past might not be interested in sex, and I thought, “why on earth would she feel the need to explain something so obv- OH.” Because men don’t know this stuff, and she’s a dude writing for dudes.
Anyway the big idea that I’ve been dwelling on is that if you outlaw advertising because of its pernicious negative influence on people, it doesn’t disappear - it just gets harder to identify. It gets subtle - the boundaries between content & advertising blur.
This makes the advertising, or as we’d call it, “paid content,” harder to identify. Which can lead to even more negative pernicious effects vs. when it’s out in the open.
The more I think about how to counteract the negative effects of advertising-driven services like facebook, the more I think the tech industry a) won’t self-regulate and b) won’t (and shouldn’t) be driving the eventual solution.
We had our shot & we fucked it up. Thanks, Zuck. You ruined it for everyone. Time to get some adults in here who understand policy and actually consider the repercussions of various approaches.
I read the book based on your recommendation, and it was excellent, plus frighteningly prescient. Not just about “influencers”, but also the general direction of society and economic stratification
You may know both of these things, but a) Alice Sheldon writing as Tiptree is a super interesting person who wrote a lot of cool stuff, and was the object of fierce speculation about who Tiptree was before her identity was revealed. There’s a bio that I enjoyed very much
B) there is, of all things, a musical version of this story. It’s act one of a show called Weird Romance. It’s sort of a sanitized/simplified version of the plot, but still kind of interesting.
Oh, Tiptree is awesome 
So fed up with everyone's bullshit, and still so human, so aware of the frailty of the human condition, so warm and kind. Please read "The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things To Rats". It's so beautiful, I cry every single time.
Thank you
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