Argumentation and Representation in the Internet Age

In my youtube haze recently I stumbled across this video on Ryan Holiday, discussing his career as a professional marketing shill slash Internet Troll for hire which has, honestly, been something of a revelation for me.

I mean, yeah....I understand how marketing rules the internet, sure.

And I grokk the concept of the troll, yes.

And I have enough millennial friends to realize that when I speak from my voice as myself online, I am Totally Doing It Wrong. And that taking anything seriously on the internet is a failing, not a strength.

But....this video interview with Ryan Holiday really hammered the message home in a way I had not previously been able to fully grasp. Like, big picture kind of way, I guess.

Hmmmm....

(Old Tricks New Dog problem here....or the reverse....I just don't think I can "not be myself" despite thinking about it. But the next generation's internet is going to be seriously hosed, I think. Not the millennial's internet...my son's, the post-millennials. Where nothing is real and everything is permitted, essentially.)