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Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

theatlantic.com

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Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#311

Post by [deleted] »

frabbit wrote: post #222
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was talking to my younger sister (college student) the other day, and she mentioned that she and her friends are very reluctant to post their opinions online, especially under their real names. This was a bit of a surprise to me, because she volunteers for the Democrats and is openly lesbian, so I would have thought her opinions are generally a great match for the current cultural milieu. I think maybe part of the…

Suggest to her that she voices an anti-Israeli genocide position and see how she reacts to the trucks driving around with her face on them after she's doxxed. That'll make her feel better about your fear of the left.

[deleted]

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#312

Post by nebula8804 »

kbaker wrote: post #286
pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

I really enjoy the Garbage Day email newsletter. (disclaimer, I am a paid subscriber.) Distills the cesspool of the algorithmic feeds to present up-to-date trends, popular memes, etc. as well as a general commentary of the sad state of the modern Internet and our engagement-driven AI-training future. I don't have a desire to join all the 'socials' myself, but it is nice to try and view at arm's length what 'the new g…

Hell Yeah! Fellow Garbage Day subscriber!! Ironically this was "recommended" to me by substack in the same manner that other internet sites dictate what you should see lol

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#313

Post by ryandrake »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #302
gloryjulio wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that so-called cancel culture has been around forever? Doesn't every group do it?

It’s anecdotal, but I had a friendship dissolve over one friend kind of “canceling” another for a prolonged period. It was very much by the modern playbook, though it looked slightly different. Something offended some sensitivities, though it was a benign as an unexpected break up. My previous friend made a great effort to convince others of how immoral and cruel our other friend was, and some people kind of bought i…

These problems seem to be limited to people who are chronically online. People who live on Facebook and Twitter. I know this is a bold claim but I’m immune to cancellation since I simply don’t have accounts on social media, and don’t use it. I live in meatspace and all of my friends and acquaintances are in meatspace, so good luck taking me down. There could be someone on Twitter right now trash talking me and telling everyone how horrible I am and how I should be fired and look! it’s not affecting my life in the slightest. Quitting these online-outrage tools is the first step.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#314

Post by pdonis »

pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

> now it's all balkanized

It was even more balkanized in the days before the Internet. It's much easier now for a meme to go viral (for good or for bad) because everyone on the Internet is potentially connected to everyone else. You didn't know how many kids were actually listening to that loud radio station in the past, any more than you know how many people are actually listening to what's trending on Spotify. But Spotify gives you access to the work of many, many more people than you could possibly get access to in the past.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#315

Post by [deleted] »

1over137 wrote: post #269
mckern wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, The Economist published a 17,000 word un-paywalled piece [0] recently about the NYT's group think problem. [0] https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/12/14/when-the-new-york-...

Maybe I'm old, but didn't the NYT used to be very right-wing?

[deleted]

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#316

Post by donatj »

mbb70 wrote: post #161
pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

The extreme personalization of the internet/modern life can lead to a feeling of isolation. I recently was on a plane with broken inflight entertainment, so all you could watch was a single movie in lock step with everyone else. When the movie ended, there was a weird sense of camaraderie; "we are all stuck in this tube and we all just sat through that mediocre movie".

I was honestly kind of shocked to find out a coworker watched a couple of the same YouTubers I do.

It's probably just because my interests are obscure but my assumption has always been I live in my own bubble. Even my friends don't consume anything like the same media I do, going back to the early aughts.

About once a month I'll be watching a YouTube Short and my wife will yell out "Hey, I saw that on Tiktok"

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#317

Post by Aerbil313 »

autoexec wrote: post #157
pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

> I feel like every decade of the 1900's had pretty distinct cultural trends and identity, and even subcultures and counter cultures of the past were more public, but now it's all balkanized. I have no idea if that is a bad thing, but it is certainly different. I like it. Instead of sitting around talking about whatever the big media gatekeepers shoved down our throats we can get together and share what we've found a…

The bonds between people are diminishing while the bonds between people and the institutions / technology is strengthening. The normal course of technological progress. This will and is already leading to widespread unhappiness and mental illness, as bonding with others is a biological need.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#318

Post by guerrilla »

I'll tell you what this actually is: the overclass has lost the ability to determine what is popular. It was always forced on us by whoever could pay the most and get a bit lucky. Now we have something resembling a democracy where people have some input of their own.

> “One reason why there’s so much consternation is that if you can’t see what’s going on, you can’t rig the game anymore,” he said.

Exactly. This is part of it, but the other part is that it's become extremely expensive to rig the game on a regular basis because of how fragmented and distributed everything is.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#319

Post by AlbertCory »

autoexec wrote: post #310
AlbertCory wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn. I was thinking I was ahead of this dude, since I have seen that. But no, it was The Night Manager . Sigh. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399664/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_14_act

Was that worth watching at least?

well, Hugh Laurie's always good. But I didn't find it compelling.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#320

Post by WalterBright »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #235
Geisterde wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have become immunized to algorithmic content curation, I dont know exactly why that happened, but understanding how it works at a surface level I think helped. Im curious if thats a widespread phenomena or not, I suspect it is.

I’m pretty skeptical that it’s possible to be immune to algorithmic content curation. It seems more than a little bit like the people who say “hey, mainstream media is all biased, but that’s not a problem for me because I’ve found the sources that are actually true”. How do you choose which content to watch and how does that process exclude algorithmic curation?

I've read many books by activists, and by serious historians. After a while, you notice that the style of writing is different. The activist writers use noticeably more emotional language, draw sweeping conclusions based on flimsy evidence, have fewer cites, and no counterexamples are ever mentioned.

For a couple activist products, Showtime recently ran a miniseries documentary on Reagan, and HBO one on Kennedy. The 6 hour Reagan documentary was about everything that was wrong about Reagan (it even criticized Reagan for recovering rapidly from the assassination attempt), and Reagan did nothing right. The Kennedy documentary was the other way, Kennedy was a god among men and never put a foot wrong.

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