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Posted on December 8th, 2008 by Stuart Turton
The fury of Fry
Stephen Fry troubles me. His apoplectic Vista rant on Twitter officially made him high priest of a generation of internet users I don’t get. A generation that believes the best place for their misinformed innermost is the internet’s murky shop window.
I understand the immediacy. You think something and ten seconds later, people know it. I just don’t understand why anybody thinks that’s a good thing. Especially not for somebody like Fry, a celebrity with his fingers in every aspect of the internet pie. He writes a tech column for the Guardian, maintains his own website and comments forum, blogs regularly and posts on half-a-dozen sites. What is it that Twitter offers him?Obviously, he was frustrated, but the 140 character Twitter limit reduced his argument to text speak and a vague sense of stupidity that is now being used to bash him over the head. But that’s what Twitter is. A dirty floor on which to scatter opinion confetti. Worthless scraps of frustration, excitment, and ill-concieved fury. I really don’t see its worth.
There’s something else that bothers me about Fry, and that’s his rise to Lord High Nerd. Yes, he was the second person after Douglas Adams to buy a Mac in the UK, but between that oft-repeated titbit, and his ascension to becoming the Geek Messiah, what happened? Where’s his missing 18 years? What is, exactly, that makes Stephen Fry the go-to gadget advocate?
I suspect it’s little more than his famous face, and his willigness to admit he likes technology. He’s knowledgable, certainly. And he has a knack for talking about gadgets eloquently, but even in that, what’s his purpose? To evangalise? To sell? To inform? To review? What does he do? He talks and thousands listen, myself included, but I have no idea what it is I’m listening to. That troubles me.
10 Responses to “ The fury of Fry ”
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December 8th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
H ewas trying to connect to WEP. Why is WEP still around? http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/20436/wireless-hacking-tool-released.html
December 8th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Why the mad and hateful rant at Stephen Fry all of a sudden? Whats he ever done to you? Is there some kind of sexually frustrated pent-up energy within yourself that requires you to bash whichever TV-famous guy comes along first? I like Stephen Fry, and considering his success, I suspect many more people like him too. People have their own opinions, which is why the world is so interesting at times. Bashing someone elses opinion and judging them without knowing why is riduculous. Stephen has his own opinion about computers, just like everyone else in the world. And I agree with him, some PC’s are utter shite including the Vista OS. Perhaps you ought to get out into the big wide world some more, rather than spending your time ranting off at anyone you have a vague dislike against.
By the way, Stephen Fry has a mental condition of chronic depression. Perhaps you ought to take medical conditions into account before you criticise peoples personal opinions.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
If we are not free to criticise others’ opinions, what *are* we free to criticise?
It seems to be a design flaw in vista, from what I’ve read, although that it is a flaw is only a matter of opinion, and it seems there is some justification for it.
Stephen Fry posted something uncomposed, and frankly a little ridiculous on the internet, and while I (and most people I know) have, at some stage, done something similar, it was still appropriate that stephen fry be aware of it, and, lets’ face it, he probably could’ve searched for a solution.
As for chronic depression and bipolar disorder, they do not affect who you are. They may affect how you would react to something, but you are still personally responsible.
Your own post seems rather like a rant, as well, and some of what you say could be applied to you as well.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I just found it odd how badly worded it was with a couple of mispellings. It was as if a 16 year old had done it. We all get frustrated sometimes but for a technology columnist it was quite a sad day to see him behaving like an illiterate adolescent with no idea about technology. How can you take anything he says seriously now when he behaves like my son does when he gets shot by a storm trooper on his console.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I don’t get twitter etc… either.
When the only means of communication was a letter by post, people would only write important things. Then as communication got easier, people would communicate about less important things. Now with so many ways to communicate we have to put up with every single little dribble of a thought that passes through peoples brains!
@ Anonymous – I don’t have depression, but I am very short sighted in one eye, does that mean I am also exempt from criticism?
December 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Is this a rant at twitter (something I confess I’ve never heard of before today) or at Mr Fry? I think the massive immediacy of the internet provided a position to vent, which, frankly read poorly and made me wonder if this was really Fry’s work, or some scribbling teenager. Either way I didn’t take it seriously.
In person Stephen Fry is phenomenally intimidating in his intellect , quite evidently brilliant and very genial. In many ways he represents a figure we can all listen to as he can write about computers without actually having to say anything. Where PC writes very diligently and carefully about the gamut of industry to components Stephen Fry can clobber the entire gamut and avoid saying anything specific – much like Jeremy Clarkson in the Times motoring column.
Whether we listen or not is up to us. I don’t think his writing either adds to or detracts from PC Pro’s writers, but is more indicative of human frustration at software – something Pro can’t provide because they’d be attacking the industry they write about.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
The idea that Stephen Fry must always be eloquent and verbose, not uttering a word unless its nature has been considered for a year and a day is as ridiculous as the train of thought that states that female actresses must always wear make-up and look amazing, even when going for a jog or buying some milk. Just because Fry had an episweat because Windows was ballsing him around (and most people have done this at some point), venting over the internet instead of flying to Seattle and giving Steve Ballmer a jolly good kick in the nads.
Fry is given a platform to spout on about technology because he’s a great writer and knows a lot about this sort of thing. The same reasons that anyone employed by Pc Pro is given a platform to write blogs and reviews, I suppose…
December 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
So why did he not use that platform to do some great writing. Why did he not draft his rants and then write it properly when he had the time to spell correctly. Why didn’t he just shout out the words instead of writing the crap that he did. I like him as much as the next person but this was pathetic. You don’t see PC Pro writers losing their rag with us when we moan at them. he let himself down
December 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Shock discovery. Stephen Fry is a human being who got mighty fed up of a computer refusing to work properly and had a rant. Worse still, some of his rant wasn’t grammatically well formed!
He chose to write. Some chose to read. In the good old days only ‘proper’ journalists could write opinion forming pieces. I suspect many of those hacks are rather threatened by the ability of every Tom, Dick and Harriet to blog on anything and everything, often in very well informed and entertaining ways.
The onus is now, more than ever, on the reader to assess the quality of work before them, rather than just assuming that it must be good because it is published. If you trust it simply because it is written by a celebrity or a journalist then you may get burned. That’s why I read Fry’s twitterings, chuckled and took no notice. WEP has never really worked properly and he ought to know better…
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
[...] are utter shite including the Vista OS. Perhaps you ought to get out into the big wide world some more, rather than sp…
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