It Monocultures Your Thoughts
February 15, 2023 2:58 PM Subscribe
How Twitter Is Bad For You Some observations on Twitter's pernicious effect: It Separates You From Reality; It Gives You More People to Hate; It Wants You to Be a Shtick
Here are examples of some of the species of thought in your mind that are likely to be extinguished:
1. Nascent, half-formed insights that could grow into something more complex
2. Micro-observations about your particular context
3. Fragments of dreams, idle fancies
4. A sense of what you are feeling in your body, right now
5. The ongoing plot of your life
What is this piece even going for? Talk about turning into a schtick!
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:08 PM on February 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
1. Nascent, half-formed insights that could grow into something more complex
2. Micro-observations about your particular context
3. Fragments of dreams, idle fancies
4. A sense of what you are feeling in your body, right now
5. The ongoing plot of your life
What is this piece even going for? Talk about turning into a schtick!
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:08 PM on February 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
This strikes me as another entry in a tiresome genre of "thinkpiece" entitled Let Me Unjustifiably Extrapolate My Engagement With Social Media To The Medium As A Whole.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:10 PM on February 15, 2023 [32 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:10 PM on February 15, 2023 [32 favorites]
Yeah this definitely nails some things that Twitter trains you to do that I was really glad to watch fade out of the way I experienced the world once I started up a Mastodon instance and set the post length limit to about 7k. I am so glad to be done with trying to cram all my thoughts into that impossible limit of 140 characters ("generously" raised to 280 later on) just because it's where a lot of my friends ended up after LJ collapsed, everyone started to end up on G+ because their "circles" duplicated most of LJ's "friends" functionality, and then Google said "fuck you" to everyone who went by a name that did not sound like a legal name assigned to a white American and chased all my weird-ass furry friends off.
posted by egypturnash at 3:11 PM on February 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by egypturnash at 3:11 PM on February 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
There's a Sci-Fi short story out there somewhere about the Fermi Paradox (if the universe is so big, and the conditions of life are nothing special, then where is everybody?) where someone is being led on a Virgil-like tour of the planetary civilizations that didn't make it through the process of The Great Sorting:
"These are the planets that overused their resources and Easter Islanded themselves; these are the ones that blew themselves up with atomic weapons."
'What's that especially blasted planet over there?'
"Oh boy; if you Earthlings thought Twitter was bad, you're never going to make it through developing telepathy."
posted by bartleby at 3:46 PM on February 15, 2023 [17 favorites]
"These are the planets that overused their resources and Easter Islanded themselves; these are the ones that blew themselves up with atomic weapons."
'What's that especially blasted planet over there?'
"Oh boy; if you Earthlings thought Twitter was bad, you're never going to make it through developing telepathy."
posted by bartleby at 3:46 PM on February 15, 2023 [17 favorites]
There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US. That's less than 1/1000th of the population. Much of this twitter hysteria is overblown on so many levels.
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, confirmed just the other day that “thousands or hundreds of thousands” of Russian Twitter accounts targeting the U.S. are still active on the platform as part of an ongoing campaign.
So, if both of those assertions are in the region of correct, then either there’s one Russian disinformation a count on Twitter for every two or three actual American humans, or - if the numbers go the other way - a majority of presumptively American accounts are actually Russian disinformants.
Either theory seems plausible, honestly.
posted by mhoye at 3:49 PM on February 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, confirmed just the other day that “thousands or hundreds of thousands” of Russian Twitter accounts targeting the U.S. are still active on the platform as part of an ongoing campaign.
So, if both of those assertions are in the region of correct, then either there’s one Russian disinformation a count on Twitter for every two or three actual American humans, or - if the numbers go the other way - a majority of presumptively American accounts are actually Russian disinformants.
Either theory seems plausible, honestly.
posted by mhoye at 3:49 PM on February 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
I follow (and am followed by) fewer than 300 people, most of them furries or IRL friends. Only about 50 of those are at all active, and only about 20 of those are ones I interact with at all. Since I opted out of seeing people's likes and the algorithm and am only seeing tweets and retweets by people I'm following, in reverse chronological order, I don't SEE any of this disinformation at all.
Honestly, if twitter were to revert to the days when you only saw tweets and retweets of people you follow for everyone, life would be much better for everyone.
posted by hippybear at 3:52 PM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
Honestly, if twitter were to revert to the days when you only saw tweets and retweets of people you follow for everyone, life would be much better for everyone.
posted by hippybear at 3:52 PM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
oh, and +1 to the notion that one of the things Google got right with its attempt at social media was Circles, where you could selectively post to / read posts from your own categories: Family (sane), Family (nutters), Work Colleagues, Fellow Perverts, Celebrities I Follow, People I've Actually Met in Real Life, etc.
It was much healthier than the Everyone Everywhere Should Know My Opinions on Every Issue, the Moment I First Encounter It approach.
See also: I should be able to Mute America
posted by bartleby at 4:08 PM on February 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
It was much healthier than the Everyone Everywhere Should Know My Opinions on Every Issue, the Moment I First Encounter It approach.
See also: I should be able to Mute America
posted by bartleby at 4:08 PM on February 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
This strikes me as another entry in a tiresome genre of "thinkpiece" entitled Let Me Unjustifiably Extrapolate My Engagement With Social Media To The Medium As A Whole.
I agree.
Here's an observation I wonder if you agree with: This seems like the perspective of someone who has a substack newsletter.
And by that I mean he's in the business of having takes. To be successful, he needs to build an audience for those takes, which sounds like how he was using Twitter, if not entirely consciously. Many of the twisted incentives he lists apply most strongly to people attempting to become internet personalities.
That's not to say that the urge to compete for popularity doesn't apply to other people, or that those twisted incentives don't affect other spaces as well, but I'm starting to suspect that just by being the type of person who writes thinkpieces about Twitter, you're more likely to be engaging with Twitter in a toxic way, or at least be surrounded by people who are.
And I don't actually mean this as an insult, but I think it explains why these essays never seem to match the type of experience I (or many others) have on Twitter.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 4:45 PM on February 15, 2023 [14 favorites]
I agree.
Here's an observation I wonder if you agree with: This seems like the perspective of someone who has a substack newsletter.
And by that I mean he's in the business of having takes. To be successful, he needs to build an audience for those takes, which sounds like how he was using Twitter, if not entirely consciously. Many of the twisted incentives he lists apply most strongly to people attempting to become internet personalities.
That's not to say that the urge to compete for popularity doesn't apply to other people, or that those twisted incentives don't affect other spaces as well, but I'm starting to suspect that just by being the type of person who writes thinkpieces about Twitter, you're more likely to be engaging with Twitter in a toxic way, or at least be surrounded by people who are.
And I don't actually mean this as an insult, but I think it explains why these essays never seem to match the type of experience I (or many others) have on Twitter.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 4:45 PM on February 15, 2023 [14 favorites]
"*There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US. That's less than 1/1000th of the population. Much of this twitter hysteria is overblown on so many levels."
Where does this stat come from? It seems extremely low, and indeed all the numbers I can find estimate in the 50-70 million user range, with something like half of those active daily. I mean, Mastodon has 10 million users now, and a lot of those seem to be Americans.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
Where does this stat come from? It seems extremely low, and indeed all the numbers I can find estimate in the 50-70 million user range, with something like half of those active daily. I mean, Mastodon has 10 million users now, and a lot of those seem to be Americans.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
Monoculture is fascism. And Twitter sucks. Therefore fascism, yet again, sucks
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 5:02 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 5:02 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
I like having a little pocket notebook other people can read. People who find it tedious will self-select away from it, and people who like it occasionally give me feedback, insight, and friendship. Being popular is not important.
posted by sonascope at 5:13 PM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
What is this piece even going for? Talk about turning into a schtick!
Not to be glib, but I read that twitter's max of 280 characters, the competition for attention, and overall structure incentivizes people (either consciously or subconsciously) to have the types of interactions that he describes. The "you learn to look at your own experience through simplistic representations" is definitely something I've observed.
There are 2 acquaintances local to my town that immediately come to my mind, come across as extremely confrontational and angry on twitter and after following each other on twitter for a year or 2, I had few conversations with each of them in person and their personalities were much more subdued and their thoughts were a bit more nuanced than I what I observed on twitter.
I will say that his absolutism that is a bit ironic and agree not everyone necessarily has that experience (That he describes).
posted by fizzix at 5:18 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Not to be glib, but I read that twitter's max of 280 characters, the competition for attention, and overall structure incentivizes people (either consciously or subconsciously) to have the types of interactions that he describes. The "you learn to look at your own experience through simplistic representations" is definitely something I've observed.
There are 2 acquaintances local to my town that immediately come to my mind, come across as extremely confrontational and angry on twitter and after following each other on twitter for a year or 2, I had few conversations with each of them in person and their personalities were much more subdued and their thoughts were a bit more nuanced than I what I observed on twitter.
I will say that his absolutism that is a bit ironic and agree not everyone necessarily has that experience (That he describes).
posted by fizzix at 5:18 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
It Wants You to Be a Shtick
i see people on twitter doing this all the time, and i can't decide if it's more depressing how many people are really keen on flanderizing themselves, or how many people are there to reinforce that behavior. things like 'SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE A BUNCH OF BOZOS! RETWEET THIS TO LET SENATE REPUBLICANS KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOZOS THEY ARE.' and like 50k people will retweet. do they think the senate republicans care? are they simply expressing approval of the message. i don't know. i really don't know, man. but i'll tell you, it keeps me up at night.
anyway, if you wouldn't mind clicking that little 'plus' sign just below this, please do. it would really send a message to those danged senate republicans.
posted by logicpunk at 7:05 PM on February 15, 2023 [19 favorites]
i see people on twitter doing this all the time, and i can't decide if it's more depressing how many people are really keen on flanderizing themselves, or how many people are there to reinforce that behavior. things like 'SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE A BUNCH OF BOZOS! RETWEET THIS TO LET SENATE REPUBLICANS KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOZOS THEY ARE.' and like 50k people will retweet. do they think the senate republicans care? are they simply expressing approval of the message. i don't know. i really don't know, man. but i'll tell you, it keeps me up at night.
anyway, if you wouldn't mind clicking that little 'plus' sign just below this, please do. it would really send a message to those danged senate republicans.
posted by logicpunk at 7:05 PM on February 15, 2023 [19 favorites]
Surely this would fit in the previous thread(s) on Twitter.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:11 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:11 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
It is important to remember that, however much you 'think' your 'witty' riposte is valid, you are unimportant and statistically insignificant in the gene pool of normal inter-relations. Get. Over. It. And stop trying to validate your own self -importance. You are not...
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 7:58 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 7:58 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
That's just, like, your opinion, man.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:16 PM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:16 PM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
OnTheLastCastle - No, statistics... you are an algorithm, a sum of your parts and your relevance. Compared to what others say, your comments lack value and substance unless you have a majority who recognize that what you say has relevance and importance... like mine...
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 8:56 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 8:56 PM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I barely had a following on Twitter and completely and utterly empathise with these Twitter-breaks-your-brain arguments. I didn't have takes or need to feed the algorithm, I knew the incantations to block the recommended tweets and used the normal chronological timeline, and I still definitely felt Twitter making me unhappier. So I reject the argument that this is just a concern of the thinkpiece crowd, even as I acknowledge that the thinkpiece crowd cares way too much about Twitter. (Then again, the fact that a lot of cultural elites cares about Twitter makes it ipso facto important - I'd love to get the Metroid Prime remaster on the national agenda but not enough of our nation's politicians or media care about a dope videogame.)
Twitter, via friends, tried to show me a bunch of problems that people thought the world needed to know about, particularly problems in America. I can't fix America. My solution for these problems is to not move to America. Showing me these problems does nothing except make me miserable. It seemed like an engine to overwhelm empathetic people with a bunch of problems they simply cannot do anything about.
I also think that the things that e.g. artists like about Twitter, that it connects you to everyone on the site rather than just a community, is also the reason that Twitter is miserable for people, because anyone on the site can connect to you, including people who hate your very existence, or a group of people who have developed strong opinions on niche subjects and see anyone adjacent to them doing something different as being disrespectful. (I have heard horror stories of "knitting Twitter".) Humans can't really deal with communities of that size, and it will take several millennia of evolution to be able to.
To make software that fits humans, we need things that let us form more comfortable in-groups and out-groups. This will be less optimal for artists, but the Twitter status quo was never going to work long-term.
posted by Merus at 9:51 PM on February 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
Twitter, via friends, tried to show me a bunch of problems that people thought the world needed to know about, particularly problems in America. I can't fix America. My solution for these problems is to not move to America. Showing me these problems does nothing except make me miserable. It seemed like an engine to overwhelm empathetic people with a bunch of problems they simply cannot do anything about.
I also think that the things that e.g. artists like about Twitter, that it connects you to everyone on the site rather than just a community, is also the reason that Twitter is miserable for people, because anyone on the site can connect to you, including people who hate your very existence, or a group of people who have developed strong opinions on niche subjects and see anyone adjacent to them doing something different as being disrespectful. (I have heard horror stories of "knitting Twitter".) Humans can't really deal with communities of that size, and it will take several millennia of evolution to be able to.
To make software that fits humans, we need things that let us form more comfortable in-groups and out-groups. This will be less optimal for artists, but the Twitter status quo was never going to work long-term.
posted by Merus at 9:51 PM on February 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
Excellent article. I thought this bit was good;
I think the accurate way to view Twitter is that it’s an incredible resource, filled with great people and ideas, that is also situated on a toxic waste dump that poisons you.posted by TheophileEscargot at 11:23 PM on February 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
I’d suggest looking at it, maybe, like smoking in order to socialize with smokers: you want to at least be conscious that you’re making a tradeoff, doing something unhealthy in order to get something else in return. Make your exposure as worthwhile as you can, and if you’re not getting something quite obvious in return, leave.
There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US. That's less than 1/1000th of the population.
This is not even remotely true, is it?
Twitter has 41.5 million monetizable daily active users in the United States.
United States: 77.75 million active users
Our estimates exclude any fake, duplicate, or business accounts by drawing primarily from consumer survey data. 56.9 million US users.
The only reference to 300k I can find anywhere is an estimate of Twitter Blue subscribers, which is a completely different thing (and that's a worldwide figure, about two thirds of that is USA).
So maybe the twitter hysteria is overblown, sure. But the reason given in support of that underestimates the scale it the problem by two orders of magnitude. Rather than being less than a thousandth of Americans, it's 18% to 23% of US Internet users.
posted by Dysk at 11:57 PM on February 15, 2023 [12 favorites]
This is not even remotely true, is it?
Twitter has 41.5 million monetizable daily active users in the United States.
United States: 77.75 million active users
Our estimates exclude any fake, duplicate, or business accounts by drawing primarily from consumer survey data. 56.9 million US users.
The only reference to 300k I can find anywhere is an estimate of Twitter Blue subscribers, which is a completely different thing (and that's a worldwide figure, about two thirds of that is USA).
So maybe the twitter hysteria is overblown, sure. But the reason given in support of that underestimates the scale it the problem by two orders of magnitude. Rather than being less than a thousandth of Americans, it's 18% to 23% of US Internet users.
posted by Dysk at 11:57 PM on February 15, 2023 [12 favorites]
Honestly, if twitter were to revert to the days when you only saw tweets and retweets of people you follow for everyone, life would be much better for everyone.
o will no one think of the advertisers?!
posted by chavenet at 1:49 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
o will no one think of the advertisers?!
posted by chavenet at 1:49 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
I’ve been thinking about logging back on after signing out the day it got musky. I’ve never messed much with lists but I’ve heard they can provide a better curated experience.
posted by slogger at 3:53 AM on February 16, 2023
posted by slogger at 3:53 AM on February 16, 2023
Surely this would fit in the previous thread(s) on Twitter.
We can only have max 280 comments per Twitter thread, though.
:P
posted by eviemath at 4:09 AM on February 16, 2023
We can only have max 280 comments per Twitter thread, though.
:P
posted by eviemath at 4:09 AM on February 16, 2023
Regardless of the number of users, I can pretty much guarantee that if you turn on cable or broadcast television there will be a screenshot of a tweet on your screen within ten minutes.
I do not and never have had a Twitter account but I still end up being shown dozens of tweets a day if I'm using the Internet heavily.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:52 AM on February 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
I do not and never have had a Twitter account but I still end up being shown dozens of tweets a day if I'm using the Internet heavily.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:52 AM on February 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
The author comes *this close* to identifying the underlying problem of Twitter and every social network: they display a count of how many followers you have. All of the behaviors described in the article are done to increase that stupid little number in the corner of a profile. It's been the primary driver of social media shittification going all the way back to people seeing how many random friends they can collect on The Facebook.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 AM on February 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 AM on February 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US
That can't be right. The real number's got to be in the millions.
(On preview) Thank you, Dysk, for finding countering evidence.
posted by doctornemo at 6:44 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
That can't be right. The real number's got to be in the millions.
(On preview) Thank you, Dysk, for finding countering evidence.
posted by doctornemo at 6:44 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
I am so glad to be done with trying to cram all my thoughts into that impossible limit of 140 characters
One thing that keeps getting overlooked in the discussion about "Twitter maybe forces you to think and react in certain ways" is that Twitter launched in the era before smartphones with touchscreens. Someone who remembers the early 2000s better than me should please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I seem to recall that the reason 140 characters was the limit is because that was the limit of characters in a T9-text message. Twitter's original use was that you registered from your computer but you posted from your phone.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:29 AM on February 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
One thing that keeps getting overlooked in the discussion about "Twitter maybe forces you to think and react in certain ways" is that Twitter launched in the era before smartphones with touchscreens. Someone who remembers the early 2000s better than me should please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I seem to recall that the reason 140 characters was the limit is because that was the limit of characters in a T9-text message. Twitter's original use was that you registered from your computer but you posted from your phone.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:29 AM on February 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Twitter is a way of distilling the ultimate culmination of human history and culture into bite-sized pieces. It's ChatGPT for the alien overlords who run the simulation we're living in. It's not supposed to be good for you.
posted by Western Infidels at 7:48 AM on February 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Western Infidels at 7:48 AM on February 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/counting-characters
Twitter began as an SMS text-based service. This limited the original Tweet length to 140 characters (which was partly driven by the 160 character limit of SMS, with 20 characters reserved for commands and usernames). Over time as Twitter evolved, the maximum Tweet length grew to 280 characters - still short and brief, but enabling more expression.posted by achrise at 7:59 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
It Separates You From Reality; It Gives You More People to Hate; It Wants You to Be a Shtick
...or not. We can use Twitter in many ways, most of which aren't described by the linked screed.
hippybear notes that "we're severely failing our populace with media literacy education" and that's quite true. But media (as well as information and digital) literacy has shown positive ways to make use of Twitter.
I know this is an unpopular thing to say on the blue. I've read the room and know it's passionately anti-Twitter. Yet arguments like this one really offer a fragmentary or partial view of the fuller reality.
posted by doctornemo at 8:02 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
...or not. We can use Twitter in many ways, most of which aren't described by the linked screed.
hippybear notes that "we're severely failing our populace with media literacy education" and that's quite true. But media (as well as information and digital) literacy has shown positive ways to make use of Twitter.
I know this is an unpopular thing to say on the blue. I've read the room and know it's passionately anti-Twitter. Yet arguments like this one really offer a fragmentary or partial view of the fuller reality.
posted by doctornemo at 8:02 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
I personally like Twitter just fine, but this is some really silly stuff:
This could only be produced by someone who has been carefully trained by psychological reinforcement.
The tweet it is referencing ("woman can smell male masturbators") is the same as the people who think there is some chemical you can put in a pool to identify urine, which the idea of has been around for decades. I know this is trite, but go outside and talk to a human once in a while.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:05 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
This could only be produced by someone who has been carefully trained by psychological reinforcement.
The tweet it is referencing ("woman can smell male masturbators") is the same as the people who think there is some chemical you can put in a pool to identify urine, which the idea of has been around for decades. I know this is trite, but go outside and talk to a human once in a while.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:05 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
To borrow from the titular character of Shane (1953):
Twitter is a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool - an axe, a shovel, or anything. Twitter is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
posted by MrJM at 8:12 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
Twitter is a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool - an axe, a shovel, or anything. Twitter is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
posted by MrJM at 8:12 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
going all the way back to people seeing how many random friends they can collect on The Facebook
Heh... or LinkedIn... I am up over 10,400 now... I connect with.... ANYONE... (that doesn't look like a bot, or a "hey, are you interesting in getting X,Y,Z certified?")
posted by rozcakj at 8:24 AM on February 16, 2023
Heh... or LinkedIn... I am up over 10,400 now... I connect with.... ANYONE... (that doesn't look like a bot, or a "hey, are you interesting in getting X,Y,Z certified?")
posted by rozcakj at 8:24 AM on February 16, 2023
Twitter launched in the era before smartphones with touchscreens
Twitter was a lot less toxic in its early years. Twitter started in 2006 and didn't introduce the algorithmic timeline till 2016. The anti-Twitter stereotype of the early years was that it was all about people talking about the dull minutae of their lives like what they had for lunch. E. g. there was a spoof video called "I tweeted that" where a woman tweets everything she does or hears and says "I tweeted that". Twitter didn't become a rage machine till much later.
What Twitter was like for its first decade is now seen as wacky communist hippie utopianism when it exists on Mastodon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Twitter
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:27 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
Twitter was a lot less toxic in its early years. Twitter started in 2006 and didn't introduce the algorithmic timeline till 2016. The anti-Twitter stereotype of the early years was that it was all about people talking about the dull minutae of their lives like what they had for lunch. E. g. there was a spoof video called "I tweeted that" where a woman tweets everything she does or hears and says "I tweeted that". Twitter didn't become a rage machine till much later.
What Twitter was like for its first decade is now seen as wacky communist hippie utopianism when it exists on Mastodon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Twitter
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:27 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
Twitter is a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool
Tool (noun)
3a: one who is used or manipulated by another
3b: informal : a foolish or unlikable person : jerk
Sounds about right.
I think we're falling into that familiar trap of being unable to acknowledge the overall harm that a technology is doing because there's some subset of functionality that provides a benefit to some people.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Twitter-the-communications-platform. It allows us to get useful bits of information from people we want to follow and it's a useful way of distributing information and fostering engagement.
What absolutely sucks is Twitter-the-influencer-platform. The whole ecosystem of doing whatever it takes to rack up the followers in order to build influence for fun and profit absolutely sucks, and this is where Twitter the corporation has been largely negligent in tending to the world they've constructed. It's good that some people can find a use for Twitter, but that doesn't negate the rather obvious harm the platform is causing society in it's present state.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:38 AM on February 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Tool (noun)
3a: one who is used or manipulated by another
3b: informal : a foolish or unlikable person : jerk
Sounds about right.
I think we're falling into that familiar trap of being unable to acknowledge the overall harm that a technology is doing because there's some subset of functionality that provides a benefit to some people.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Twitter-the-communications-platform. It allows us to get useful bits of information from people we want to follow and it's a useful way of distributing information and fostering engagement.
What absolutely sucks is Twitter-the-influencer-platform. The whole ecosystem of doing whatever it takes to rack up the followers in order to build influence for fun and profit absolutely sucks, and this is where Twitter the corporation has been largely negligent in tending to the world they've constructed. It's good that some people can find a use for Twitter, but that doesn't negate the rather obvious harm the platform is causing society in it's present state.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:38 AM on February 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
yes, the "just a tool" framing seems to miss a lot
I don't think it's overly contentious to say technologies can reshape how we do, and think about, things
posted by elkevelvet at 8:51 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't think it's overly contentious to say technologies can reshape how we do, and think about, things
posted by elkevelvet at 8:51 AM on February 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
"technologies can reshape how we do, and think about, things"
100% yes.
Such is the nature of tools.
posted by MrJM at 8:57 AM on February 16, 2023
100% yes.
Such is the nature of tools.
posted by MrJM at 8:57 AM on February 16, 2023
All of the behaviors described in the article are done to increase that stupid little number in the corner of a profile.
I'll never forget being at AWP (a big book conference) and having a fellow come over to my table, where I had a lot of books set out for people to look at and hopefully buy. I had a sign with a "follow our socials" type message and he immediately looked up my Twitter account and said something like, "Oh, you have over 10,000 followers, very nice..." and then his face got disapproving and he said, "but you follow nearly that many people, so it doesn't count, does it?" and wandered off. Without once looking at the books that were, like, right there and supposedly the reason we were all at the conference.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:22 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'll never forget being at AWP (a big book conference) and having a fellow come over to my table, where I had a lot of books set out for people to look at and hopefully buy. I had a sign with a "follow our socials" type message and he immediately looked up my Twitter account and said something like, "Oh, you have over 10,000 followers, very nice..." and then his face got disapproving and he said, "but you follow nearly that many people, so it doesn't count, does it?" and wandered off. Without once looking at the books that were, like, right there and supposedly the reason we were all at the conference.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:22 AM on February 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US. That's less than 1/1000th of the population.
This is not even remotely true, is it?
Does it matter beyond the ability to make a claim, have people believe it, and then use that to support whatever pet peev one has followers watching you raise.
The train derailment has a whole lotta that. Doesn't matter what the facts are in the link you've made the claim about. Make your claim, ignore corrections, and keep finding a new thing to post.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:17 PM on February 16, 2023
This is not even remotely true, is it?
Does it matter beyond the ability to make a claim, have people believe it, and then use that to support whatever pet peev one has followers watching you raise.
The train derailment has a whole lotta that. Doesn't matter what the facts are in the link you've made the claim about. Make your claim, ignore corrections, and keep finding a new thing to post.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:17 PM on February 16, 2023
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*There are fewer than 300,000 twitter users in the US. That's less than 1/1000th of the population. Much of this twitter hysteria is overblown on so many levels.
posted by hippybear at 3:04 PM on February 15, 2023 [35 favorites]