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Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

theatlantic.com

421–430 of 537 posts

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you know what most people think?

Sort of like my dad, a professor of finance, who had a student remark to him "I didn't know there even was a case for free markets!" I get similar responses. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on HN who understands how free markets work. For example, most people would say that hard work leads to success. This is incorrect. It's creating value that leads to success. I very rarely hear the latter, in fact, prett…

> It's creating value that leads to success.

No. You need to also be in a position to capitalize on it. There also has to be no value add involved. You can profit from destroying value ...

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#422
post #252
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic is up on X 22% YoY Not quite death, but certainly agree about news outlets no longer seeing it as okay to say that “The internet is freaking out about X” https://advanced-television.com/2023/12/18/research-x-twitte... >Using the data available on Google Trends as well as SEO tool Ahrefs, domain and hosting provider Fasthosts investigated the online presence of X since the announcement of Musk’s takeover and h…

> Traffic is up on X 22% YoY Bots gonna bot. So far they’ve not caught any of mine I setup this last year. Each bot sticks to a context, simulates some time wasting doom scrolling at random to look human, posts affiliate links otherwise with AI generating the message payload in response to a Tweet by its mark. I love how easy the internet made it to fleece potato brains

Making good money?

I have many questions

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd mostly agree. But we can verify that particular instance's popularity by proxy through political content popularity. I would make the bet that it was not anywhere nearly as effective as Crunchy Cat Luna at getting views.

that comparison offers no insight whatsoever. statistic requires comprehensive sets of numbers and random selection, not two random aggregates from a single time period.

Only if you have the data available, I believe no one does outside of TikTok, and I also believe they would not release that information unless requested through legal means.

Proxy estimation is absolutely a statistical construct, its the underlying of many branches of statistics, and in this particular case it would be a causal inference.

And I don't think terrorism or terrorist apologia is so far off from general political content that I would deem random+independent from each other.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The NYT has always gathered the zeitgeist of highly affluent and artsy new Yorkers, who tend to be highly invested in maintaining their status quo. They may not be right wing by principle, but they get there a lot on some subjects by talking to lots of bankers and financiers.

I guess 'maintaining status quo' is to me a conservative / right wing thing. I'm recollecting for example in Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent a critique of the NYT being very pro-establishment, pro-government. But I guess that critique itself is from an extreme.

Robotbeat, I'm thinking more like 60 years ago.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#425
post #314
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…

Balkanized is the wrong analogy. It would imply some sort of common "sub-culture" in the context of a common culture.

Mosaication? Atomication?

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#426
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 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…

From a non American perspective describing the Dem. as left or leftists is hilarious.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#427
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 have given up in the fight for relevance. Now I am grandpa even at age 29. My nephews think it's hilarious, at least. I know a couple of their slang terms, and I abuse them.

me: "Hey, nephew! Scooby doo Ohio rizz!"

nephew: "Holy shit uncle Sam."

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know when you found that truth nugget? Why do you think content that is excluded from the algorithm is more legitimate? How do you know it was excluded? What do you think about the notion that many/most people who claim they are neither left nor right end up demonstrating that they are actually pretty right-wing?

> What do you think about the notion that many/most people who claim they are neither left nor right end up demonstrating that they are actually pretty right-wing? I'm not even sure how to respond to that. Maybe this is true for the US, but in other places of the world, societies aren't yet as polarised (although, sadly, it looks as though we're copying the American model more and more). Maybe you should make it more…

[deleted]

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it's still the case that no 16-year-olds are going to want to hang out with us" That's a broad brush you're painting with, amigo. As a 49yo father w/ two teen daughters (17 and 15), I've been surprised and delighted at the strong bonds I have w/ each of them (esp. my 17yo). We "hang out", and seek each others' company, to our mutual enjoyment -- it's absolutely nothing like my relationship w/ my own parents at their…

>That's a broad brush you're painting with, amigo. As a 49yo father w/ two teen daughters (17 and 15), I've been surprised and delighted at the strong bonds I have w/ each of them (esp. my 17yo). We "hang out", and seek each others' company, to our mutual enjoyment -- it's absolutely nothing like my relationship w/ my own parents at their age. This is not the norm though. I wonder why people think countering somethin…

OP said "no 16 year-olds..." (ie, zero). A single example to the contrary does serve as a counter. But my point wasn't to be pedantic, rather it was taking an oppty to share a positive example about a rare connection I'm fortunate to have. IME it's often interesting to read counterexamples to broad generalizations, for a more complete perspective.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profit-maximizing business is the engine of economic growth. Looking over the past couple hundred years, I’d say the outcomes have been nothing short of spectacular.

Unregulated profit maximising business has killed how many people through the trans atlantic slave trade? Without regulation, this is what happens - the bank would collect your organs for payment if they could. Buinesses have no ethical standards. Profit maximing business did not invent antibiotics, did not invent sanitation, did not create public sewers, running water, soap, GPS, and clorination of water.

Without industrialization, you never end slavery anywhere.
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