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Do Writers Have Social Responsibility?

July 5, 2021

Literature, Society

ignorance, responsibility, society, writing

I don’t know; that’s the only honest answer to the question above. That’s also the reason why I phrased it as a question. Do writers have any social responsibility? I will try to get a bit closer to the truth during the process of composing this post. If it can help you, too, in some way, all the better.

As a first thing, we would need to lay down some important theoretical foundations. When we wonder whether writers have social responsibility, there are two elements we need to define or clarify:

  • What do we mean by “writers”? Fiction writers? Nonfiction writers? Artists (who, remember, are not the same as writers)?
  • What on earth is “social responsibility”?

Most misunderstandings arise from using the same word but meaning different things – think of “love” or “success” – so being as clear as possible about our definitions is important. So, I’ll begin with trying to clarify these terms in my own head first, and then I’ll try to see how (if at all) they play ball together.

writers social responsibility
Writers have no social responsibility. They only have responsibility toward their art
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The Scope and Limits of Satire: How to Be Offended Skillfully

June 28, 2021

Society

hypocrisy, satire, social masses, social media, society

Let’s get this out of the way: Are there limits in satire? My answer to that is “No”. But we have to be careful defining satire in the first place.

Just like love or success – my two favorite examples – many people use the concept of satire to mean something entirely different. Doing so, they use “satire” without limits for purposes beyond the scope of satire.

In this post we’ll take a look at the dynamics of satire, its limits (which there shouldn’t be), and everything else you need to know so that you can offend yourself skillfully!

limits of satire
Satire has no limits, as long as it’s genuine satire, with a specific scope and purpose
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How Constant Updates Lead to Mediocrity: Apps for Scraps

May 10, 2021

Programming, Society

change, mediocrity, programming, society

We live in the time of “now, gimme, I want something new”. Everything seems to lose its value immediately – material or not. Long gone are the days of old programs or computer games where the product remained the same. And that’s great, right? Or… is it? Because when there is no need to change something, when you fix something that isn’t broken, then constant updates only lead to mediocrity.

Just ask yourself, how many times one of your Android apps updated itself and the newer iteration proved to be inferior? Perhaps you ended up with a bloated app that did the same thing, only now it took more space on your phone. If you were more unlucky, the app might have even messed up something in your workflow, which made it harder for you to use it.

As someone who has experienced this from both sides of the equation – as a user as well as programmer – I can confirm two things:

  • Users often want constant updates just for the sake of updating, without necessarily having any specific plan in mind.
  • Developers, to please their audience, offer such updates without necessarily having a clear picture of what will occur down the road.

As I said, I’ve been there myself. I’ve even made the mistake myself – thankfully only briefly, however. As I’ve mentioned in my post on why I stopped working on my Android apps, at some point I got enough of mediocrity and stupidity, and thought “fuck it, I’m done”.

But let’s take a closer look, to see how this perceived need for constant updates operates, and why it’s so insidious – both in terms of programming and in how it affects us socially.

constant updates
Apps and scraps. When it comes to constant updates, you tend to focus on the newness itself, rather than its functionality. It’s not unlike being flooded with Christmas gifts. It soon becomes about removing the wrap, rather than enjoying the item.
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