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The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

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

#271

Post by DEADMEAT »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #263
DEADMEAT wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny here are that the example issues you listed are exactly the issues that the vast majority of Americans actually do agree on. Those are wedge issues that were carefully crafted by political parties to try and create a division in popular opinion when there isn't one. It's a fairly common political strategy nowadays.

You think the vast majority of Americans agree on abortion? I'm pretty sure that, no, they do not. The division is real, not just a political strategy.

Since 1975 the percentage of Americans that think abortion should be illegal in all cases has hovered around 15-20%

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx

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

#272

Post by ceilingcorner »

amluto wrote: post #258

I have a different problem with Twitter: the mechanics of using it keep getting worse. Once upon a time you could read Twitter without logging in. This meant that one could communicate via Twitter to anyone without much friction. Now Twitter is barely functional logged out, and even making an account just to read Twitter is a hassle: you need to give an email address and then get persistent nagged. Twitter wants veri…

Nitter.net is a life saver for this.

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

#273

Post by madrox »

vorpalhex wrote: post #146
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

My favorite theory comes from an HN comment describing it as the "toaster fucker problem." I'd attempt to re-explain it, but the original comment is great (and easy to search for. Not many mentions of the phrase "toaster fucker" on HN.)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25667362

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

#274

Post by thrwawy283 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #146
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

This is an interesting idea: I wish you could Follow a combination of a person and the #topic they post to. You could choose to follow "all of" a person, but more realistically the default behavior would be to attach to posts from a particular topic that person is generating. This would be similar to your example of playing a game of Catan with someone and enjoying just that limited bandwidth you have with them. Knowing and seeing all of who they are is not common in our business relationships, or friendships.. I think you're right, and I appreciate how you articulated it.

Someone below this mentioned this was how Google+ was intended to work.

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

#275

Post by Pxtl »

sbierwagen wrote: post #198
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

Tweetdeck. It's the "pro" Twitter client that has strict chrono ordering and won't show likes or trending items. You can also set it to not show any retweets, at all.

Even vanilla Twitter allows you to get strict chrono order by switching your home-page. It does not show "likes" and reduces the use of "trending" iirc.

It does show retweets, though.

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

#276

Post by nonameiguess »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #204

So, this article states that 42% of Americans identify as politically independent. This beats the next largest political identity (Democrats, 29%) by 13%. Yet, the political system has been rigged - obviously so, for anyone who cares to look - so that an independent party fails to get the 5% necessary to get onto the ballot and future funding for the next election cycle for presidential running. How is it that there…

Did you follow the link to the actual poll? https://news.gallup.com/poll/388781/political-party-preferen...

42% may identify as "independent," but only 9% are independent without leaning Republican or Democrat. Not registering officially with the party, but still always voting for them, is quite a bit different from actually not having a preference or wanting a third party.

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

#277

Post by CameronNemo »

Uhhrrr wrote: post #268
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

>I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves Sorting by "Latest" rather than "Home" makes it so you don't see their likes and replies. I would recommend it to anyone.

And you can disable retweets.

I don't use twitter anymore but when I did I used these features to make it less toxic.

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

#279

Post by echelon »

cgrealy wrote: post #203
vorpalhex wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

While I agree in general, there are plenty of circumstances where people don't get to not have an opinion about things. For example, you can't "agree to disagree" on LGBTQ rights if you belong to one of those categories. See also pregnant people and abortion rights.

I'm LGBT and I don't consider the other side evil. I also grew up in the south and know that by yelling at them, you only make them turn their heads away. Sitting down and talking with someone is not impossible. We have more in common than not.

Oftentimes a position, belief, or disagreement is a projection of other underlying fears and discomforts. Or maybe it's simply rigidly structured views that need additional time to process new shapes.

If an intergalactic enemy suddenly showed up on our doorsteps and started attacking us, we'd all band together.

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

#280

Post by buryat »

MiddleEndian wrote: post #147

I got my twitter account MyfirstnameMylastname somewhere early in the site's existence, probably around 2009. But never really got the appeal of Twitter so I never used it for anything, I'd check it once every six months or so. I eventually learned I share a name with a tech journalist who is very active on Twitter, and occasionally I would get tagged instead instead of him. Every time, I would respond with the Navy…

> Every time, I would respond with the Navy Seal Copypasta, broken into eight twitter sized parts. Eventually they banned me for this.

yeah, people like you should be banned

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