This essay might be deeper than it first suggests.
My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S.
My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you.
N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He can't go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence.
Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it".
I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.
My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S.
My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you.
N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He can't go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence.
Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it".
I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.