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“It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

warzel.substack.com

11–20 of 116 posts

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#12
post #7

Implicitly, this piece is making an argument for a return to gate keepers/taste makers of yore. I'm not sure that's better. For better or worse, would the BLM movement have the power and reach it does today if it were filtered through establishment news sources?

It was filtered through establishment news sources.

Right, but not on social media. The OP's point.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#13
post #7

Implicitly, this piece is making an argument for a return to gate keepers/taste makers of yore. I'm not sure that's better. For better or worse, would the BLM movement have the power and reach it does today if it were filtered through establishment news sources?

Assuming BLM is a force for good.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#14
post #9

I think the issue here is human socialization and not twitter or technology. People love to play the "did you see what so-and-so said?" game in all its variants, and as far as I can tell this has been true for millenia. It has nothing to do with a trending topics feature I feel like there are many articles and books that attribute basic elements of human interaction to whatever platform the author was using to observ…

Yes, and. Twitter being a nationally unified space of gossipy people, with journalists who actually write the narrative being addicted to the gossip as well...

There were multiple actual news stories about this stupid Alien tweet! Sure, they weren't front page at the NYT but this stuff is melting the brains of all the journalists, who then go on to melt the normies brains with it.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#15
> Left unsaid, of course, is that ‘the conversation’ at scale is complete garbage

Twitter is simply not a conversation platform. The medium is optimized for publishing small blurbs to as many people as possible. It's not designed for serious back-and-forth discussion. It rewards quips and got-ems, not nuanced debate. It's almost like a giant comments section with no subject.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#16

I deleted my Twitter and I feel great after doing so. I believe Twitter is a platform where San Francisco exports its social problems to the rest of the world. The result is riots, chaos and hate.

Riots, chaos, and hate existed well before Twitter and even well before San Francisco.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#17

I deleted my Twitter and I feel great after doing so. I believe Twitter is a platform where San Francisco exports its social problems to the rest of the world. The result is riots, chaos and hate.

^ oops. I gave a bad opinion. :p

Are you implying that people aren't allowed to... disagree with you...?

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#18
post #9

I think the issue here is human socialization and not twitter or technology. People love to play the "did you see what so-and-so said?" game in all its variants, and as far as I can tell this has been true for millenia. It has nothing to do with a trending topics feature I feel like there are many articles and books that attribute basic elements of human interaction to whatever platform the author was using to observ…

I think technology is changing which kinds of gossip get spread. It used to be either things you heard directly from the people in your circle, or on tv / newspapers / magazines. Now it's algorithmically determined to be the stuff that's most likely to be shared out of a giant planet of random gossip. Algorithms reinforcing these kinds of vices make it far more extreme.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#19
post #9

I think the issue here is human socialization and not twitter or technology. People love to play the "did you see what so-and-so said?" game in all its variants, and as far as I can tell this has been true for millenia. It has nothing to do with a trending topics feature I feel like there are many articles and books that attribute basic elements of human interaction to whatever platform the author was using to observ…

Yes, and. Twitter being a nationally unified space of gossipy people, with journalists who actually write the narrative being addicted to the gossip as well... There were multiple actual news stories about this stupid Alien tweet! Sure, they weren't front page at the NYT but this stuff is melting the brains of all the journalists, who then go on to melt the normies brains with it.

Journalists using it for a source of news was strange to me until I happened upon a journalism job posting for Post Media, a major news chain up here in Canada.

The job required 5 stories a day. So you basically need at least one piece that takes a half hour to write and Twitter is good for that.

Re: “It's Not Cancel Culture – It's a Platform Failure.”

#20
post #7

Implicitly, this piece is making an argument for a return to gate keepers/taste makers of yore. I'm not sure that's better. For better or worse, would the BLM movement have the power and reach it does today if it were filtered through establishment news sources?

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