Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People • Hacker News Board

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#261

Post by vinayan3 » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

Shouldn't we thank these people for creating the content for in most cases is free? It makes the interest way more interesting. Like the OP is saying it is something we should keep in mind. However, the word insane has a negative connotation even though its usage in the OP's title might intend it.

We should also note that the 1% rule also applies to traditional media be it news programs, tv shows, documentaries, or movies. They are many barriers entry and gate keepers to filter out content that may not have mass appeal.

Mainstream media's filtering enables them to be profitable and compensate the content creators unlike most of the people on the internet. People are spending their time creating stuff so the someone else can make money? Maybe that's the insane apart?

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#262

Post by ebcode » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

imjustsaying wrote: post #197

pelagic_sky wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gone from being an admin and owner of popular forums back in the early 2000's to just a lurker who 98% of the time will write a response but just delete it before it's posted because I don't need or want the hassle of an internet argument. I'm proud of even posting this. Maybe this is my one post for 2019. :)

I also have 100,000 posts scattered about forums from the early 2000's, but very few (less than 1,000) since after 2010. The trend towards downvote groupthink is not an insignificant part of the reason I've dropped content generation.

Thanks for sharing this. It's an interesting trend that I was not aware of (but maybe intuited?). It does seem that, while on the one hand, upvotes are necessary for ranking crowdsourced content on HN and reddit, on the other hand, the voting on comments is responsible for the groupthink/hivemind/echo chamber that develops.

In terms of fostering discussion, the comment voting is a silent killer.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#263

Post by leetcrew » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #219

airstrike wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A related phenomenon I've been thinking about is the impact of traditional entertainment media (TV, Movies and Music) and the inherent bias in the sample of worldviews that the people who work in those businesses espouse. In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career, and if you assume we are inevitably influenced by their views then we're effectively taking a…

In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career There has been a transition from culture being produced by members of one's community/village/family to culture being produced by professionals for money. Stories and songs of the past were just as unbalanced and insane as stories and songs of the present. (Both in terms of being fantastical and showing only one si…

> I think there is such a misalignment with how human civilizations in general produce culture.

Perhaps this is why poets are to be banished in The Republic.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#264

Post by rargramble » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

schrodinger wrote: post #245

username90 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a recent interview, Michelle Obama said... I always wondered why USA places so much focus on the Presidents wife? I'm not an American but I know more American leaders wives than I know spouses for all other country leaders together... Isn't that insane? I've never heard anyone talk about spouses of leaders in other countries. Do you know who Merkels husband is? Did you ever hear about David Cameron's wife? So wh…

That’s a really interesting point. It does seem that we’ve (the US) got a long tradition of the First Lady (and First Gentleman once the time comes) taking a big role in politics. At the risk of sounding ignorant, do most other countries require their president-equivalent to live in a government building? If not, perhaps that’s a contributing factor?

Yes. In the UK the prime minister lives at #10 downing street. The same is true for many other countries.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#265

Post by bilbo0s » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

Joeri wrote: post #223

tokyodude wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly feels plausible and yet we have that issue. All our media tells us we should all carry guns and shoot people and yet gun violence is down. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/03/weve-... We have some of the sexyist media around telling us we should all be sleeping around and yet apparently sex is down too. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-sex... Are we sure it's an…

Media is dominated by news, and news is unavoidably carrying a bias. The things that matter are long term and commonplace, the news is novel and unusual. Major long term trends are not something that gets reported on because they’re not news. What gets reported are outliers and contrarian views. That’s why if you want to be informed about the world you shouldn’t watch the news and just read books.

>That’s why if you want to be informed about the world you shouldn’t watch the news and just read books...

???

This is the thing though, books are media too.

Also published for clickbait-y reasons.

It sounds like everyone's out suggesting methods for people to avoid using their critical thinking skills. There's no way around it, if you consume media, ANY media, you have to consume it with an almost deeply skeptical eye nowadays. It's just the world we live in, everything from music to books, and from video games to news paper articles, is riddled with bias. Using your head in such an environment is unavoidable, assuming you wish to take wise and measured actions based on the state of the world around you. If wisdom is the goal, reading books, or watching Al Jazeera is just no substitute for exercising your brain cells.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#266

Post by unknownkadath » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:39 PM UTC

gniv wrote: post #157

Most of the comments here are either elaborating on the OP, or justify lurking. I am a mostly-lurker myself, but I felt the need to comment here, since I was hoping to see the discussion go into a different direction. The OP uses the word "insane", not outlier. It's clickbaity, and used in jest, but I think it better captures a subtlety of this phenomenon: The prolific commenters are molding every discussion in their…

You make a good point. Perhaps, going forward, putting a (reasonable) word in and encouraging others who do the same should part of our civic responsibility, just like voting and paying taxes have been.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#267

Post by Zuider » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #240

stcredzero wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career There has been a transition from culture being produced by members of one's community/village/family to culture being produced by professionals for money. Stories and songs of the past were just as unbalanced and insane as stories and songs of the present. (Both in terms of being fantastical and showing only one si…

I'm kind of confused here- you mentioned Plato, but wasn't Plato a professional culture generator?

The reference is to Plato's allegory of the cave. Prisoners are chained so they are facing the back wall of a cave. Puppeteers project a play of shadows onto this wall and the prisoners, knowing no better, take this show for reality, when in fact, reality lies outside the cave. The OP was comparing the shadow-players to the professional cultural generators.

https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#268

Post by piaste » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #251

username90 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a recent interview, Michelle Obama said... I always wondered why USA places so much focus on the Presidents wife? I'm not an American but I know more American leaders wives than I know spouses for all other country leaders together... Isn't that insane? I've never heard anyone talk about spouses of leaders in other countries. Do you know who Merkels husband is? Did you ever hear about David Cameron's wife? So wh…

She's in the spotlight because she's an amazingly accomplished person. A 54-year-old black woman from the South Side of Chicago who went to Princeton despite her high-school career advice telling her "she wasn't really Princeton material". It also helps that she wrote a #1 NY Times best-seller that everyone is talking about[0]. Maybe if you read it you will understand what makes her so special. –––––––––– ⁰ https://w…

> She's in the spotlight because she's an amazingly accomplished person.

I refuse to believe that you honestly believe that.

54-year-old black women from the South Side of Chicago who go to Princeton occasionally get an interview in a local magazine and enjoy fifteen minutes of something that if you squint might pass for fame. If they fight a high-profile court case, they may get a two-paragraph Wikipedia article without a photo. To go further they need to become federal judges, or achieve a comparably prestigious position.

Women who marry a President of the United States automatically get on the cover of national magazines and have their Wikipedia page protected from non-logged in editors. If they're accomplished and eloquent as well, sure, that's a bonus.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#269

Post by citysurrounded » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #199

gniv wrote: post #157

Most of the comments here are either elaborating on the OP, or justify lurking. I am a mostly-lurker myself, but I felt the need to comment here, since I was hoping to see the discussion go into a different direction. The OP uses the word "insane", not outlier. It's clickbaity, and used in jest, but I think it better captures a subtlety of this phenomenon: The prolific commenters are molding every discussion in their…

A related phenomenon I've been thinking about is the impact of traditional entertainment media (TV, Movies and Music) and the inherent bias in the sample of worldviews that the people who work in those businesses espouse. In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career, and if you assume we are inevitably influenced by their views then we're effectively taking a…

I've been thinking about this as well — especially in regards to the excessive amount of grim, cynical, and depressing content across many modern streaming services as well as general media. I'm not sure if I've lost my taste for it or if there's a trend here. Either way I've seen it as a prevalent theme of storytelling currently. I wonder if storytellers are molding to fit their audience or the other way around...

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#270

Post by nitwit005 » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 7:44 PM UTC

Missing in that writeup is that any group which spends more time online tends to be overrepresented in things like online comments. This includes the mentally handicapped and mentally ill.

If you don't have a job, limited money, and social life is difficult, the internet has obvious attraction.