Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 784 posts

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#121

Post by coolso »

erehweb wrote: post #36

Quoted post unavailable.

> But a lot of them voted for a really terrible President

In fairness, the media did a really good job making the low gas prices, low inflation, low taxes, record low illegal border crossings, well-handled foreign policy, and record breaking speedy vaccine development of the last administration somehow seem like the most evil thing ever, so a misled public can’t really be blamed too much for who they voted into office now.

I think more than anything they were just tired of hearing about it so they voted for the current guy for a little media break.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#122

Post by filoleg »

bradenb wrote: post #22
999900000999 wrote: post #14

The most active social media users are usually people lacking in real life. Think about it, if you have a great job, a great partner and a great life, are you on Twitter arguing 20 to 30 hours a week. The type of person to argue with strangers all day has none of the above. It's also a matter of recognizing how insignificant we all are. No one cares what I think. Hopefully no one ever will. I do want to create games…

This feels oddly specific. I'm not sure why you can't engage on Twitter and still not be "lacking in real life." Who even gets to define "real life?" And while I'm sure some people spend 20-30 hours per week on Twitter I'm guessing it's such a small percentage of the world that it might as well be statistically insignificant.

> This feels oddly specific. I'm not sure why you can't engage on Twitter and still not be "lacking in real life."

It all depends on your definition of "engaging on Twitter". People reading their compiled follow lists and occasionally posting a thing or two are one thing, and that's definitely doable without "lacking in real life". But I struggle to imagine how one can spend 20-30 hours a week engaging in wild debates on twitter and not "lack in real life".

I've noticed similar tendencies in myself recently, but with Discord instead of Twitter. After doing some prolonged soul-searching, I found that to be one of the main reasons.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#123

Post by shireboy »

I'm in that group. I've consciously cut out Facebook and Twitter in part because of the toxic echo chambers they've become. HN is about the only place I'll wade in sometimes because the level of discourse seems higher.

A little rabbit trail though: Looking at the graph in the article, I'm wondering if US isn't ripe for a party system change. It's not _always_ been Republican vs Democrat in our history. Both sides are incentivized away from supporting a 3rd party out of fear it will help the "other side" and primary systems etc. have entrenched the current 2 party system. But with such great and growing discontent, I wonder if a switch like from Whigs or the handful of other parties won't eventually happen.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#124

Post by MattGaiser »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #82
typeofhuman wrote: post #6

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

Twitter is a massively multiplayer video game that is culturally overvalued and entrenched because journalism and other influential fields got sucked in. It is absolutely insane that it is taken so seriously. It's also super weird that everyone is so addicted to this game they play it out in public. To illustrate this: imagine your ideal day. It could be on vacation, or hanging out at home, anywhere really. The key:…

I saw a post once for a journalism job with local media here. 4-6 articles a day.

Not sure how you could do that job without Twitter.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#125

Post by tayo42 »

shadowgovt wrote: post #91
tayo42 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really easy to not be "canceled", just be a good person. What genuinely OK opinion are people being canceled for?

I used to think this way. Saw too many legitimately-good people get brigaded to believe it anymore. There's enough pile-on mobs on Twitter now with enough disagreement on what's acceptable that you can trip over any of them.

I wouldn't consider canceling and pile on mobs to be the same thing. I'm getting piled on here, I wouldn't say I'm getting canceled lol

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#126

Post by saiya-jin »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #82
typeofhuman wrote: post #6

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

Twitter is a massively multiplayer video game that is culturally overvalued and entrenched because journalism and other influential fields got sucked in. It is absolutely insane that it is taken so seriously. It's also super weird that everyone is so addicted to this game they play it out in public. To illustrate this: imagine your ideal day. It could be on vacation, or hanging out at home, anywhere really. The key:…

Never joined the game, never will, see absolutely 0 reason. I don't care what he and she and he said, I guess you can say I am way more impressed by deeds than endless blabbing. Anytime I open it due to being embedded in news articles and wanting to see detailed photo being shown, I see basically news/youtube/whatever shallow and pathetic comment section. Echo chambers. Weird dynamics which don't happen in real life.

Why would you do this to yourself? I mean if you are a balanced adult who knows what they want in life and are not affected by massive mood swings and insecurities for whatever reason.

It is of course not black and white, it seems that ie right now Ukrainian defenders have a very good platform to inform whole world, no need to have BBC/CNN guys embedded in the heart of bombed city. That's cool and all. I just really don't like the rest of the whole society evolved around it.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#127

Post by fantod »

bob1029 wrote: post #42
typeofhuman wrote: post #6

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

I don't think this is a healthy way to live. There was another conversation thread started about an hour ago that dives into this really well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30602611 I would reiterate my comment on that thread, verbatim: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30603008

You can get the best of both worlds. Stop worrying too much about what you think and say, like you mentioned; and also stop engaging on Twitter.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#128

Post by Ekaros »

ineptech wrote: post #108

Twitter looks like a sunk-cost fallacy run amok. The pitch was that it would become ubiquitous, and it clearly isn't and doesn't seem like it ever will be, but the people who are most heavily invested in it act as if it was, presumably out of self-interest.

Now that I think about it. I wonder if those heavily invested think it as part of their job while it generates them hits of dopamine like drugs... So they can easily justify their addiction...

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#129

Post by namelessoracle »

tayo42 wrote: post #34
typeofhuman wrote: post #6

I don't engage on Twitter out of fear. I sometimes see posts that I like and want to retweet but I don't because it means I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said or ever will say. It's not worth the risk. People in my demographic face significant exposure to "cancelling" or ambushing for wrongthink. So it's best for me to avoid it entirely.

It's really easy to not be "canceled", just be a good person. What genuinely OK opinion are people being canceled for?

A good person does not use Twitter. If you use Twitter therefore you are a bad person and deserve to be cancelled.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#130

Post by [deleted] »

tayo42 wrote: post #107
voakbasda wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not possible. People take offense at everything. Or they will tomorrow. That’s the real problem: the standards of “good” and “decent” shift from time to time. What is fine today may get you canceled tomorrow. Thus, it is not safe to put your opinions out there in any form that could come back to bite you. If you want to take that risk, fine. But do not pretend that it is safe.

It really isn't changing that much though. Maybe if you think someone might be offended by what you say in 10 years, maybe don't say it now. It's probably offensive now

[deleted]
Post reply on HN