I figured all your Dad’s tribunals were legit, based on your behavior.
This is full of clever observations. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the few substacks I read: I interact with the same pixels over and over, based on topics of mutual interest.
At the beginning I was sure this was going in the direction of, “Unlike an office, where you can be cornered into hearing about last night’s game at the break table, on social media you can “like” the post about last night’s game in less than a second, thereby satisfying that person, and keep scrolling.”
Same would be true for cute pictures of your coworkers’ kids at the pumpkin patch, except I really like those, so I actually look, then like.
And for politics, you never have to hear about it in the hospital cafeteria ever again, if they’ve gotten it out of their system on Twitter.
I think social media is genius in this way.
And it’s even been improved -- if someone asks you about something they posted which you weren’t interested in and didn’t bother to read, you can just say cheerfully “oh that darn algorithm! It doesn’t show me everything!”
In other words, I see social media as working very well -- it’s easy for me to avoid certain virtual desks and visit others -- and avoid any hurt feelings.
Fanfiction communities are all anonymous, and yet they are supportive because they are all following the same fanfiction. And if you were following one fanfiction, you would never see anything from another fanfiction.
I think Substack operates the same way. It creates walled gardens around certain interests. I follow your newsletter, so the chances are that if I come here to comment it’s because I like what you’re doing. Who would subscribe, read a very long essay, and then leave a rude comment? Hot take culture only works on Twitter because that’s how it was designed.
So I’m with you! Social media can absolutely be tweaked to encourage our better behavior instead of our worst behavior, and I think that involves better grouping of people into their interests and not just exposing them to all the people in their office with their kids and their sports and their politics. 🤣
This was a fun essay with some great suggestions. Another one I like is the downvote in Reddit, so that irrelevant and/or nasty comments tend to lose prominence. And we can always stay off social media after controversial events just to avoid the incessant takes. That’s what I do, and I also will gladly mute people if I’ve found that I come away from their posts feeling worse. People seem to forget that we’re not required to engage with every person or idea we run across.
It’s a bit facile to write off things like doxing, death threats and vile rape threats as “When I yell that an opposing player or referee sucks, he doesn’t take it personally, because he knows its meaningless talk from a distant stranger.”
I separate out doxxing from this entirely. It's a very serious issue and one I've worked on as an attorney. It's incredibly dangerous for the person being doxxed. Although I've only worked on it civilly I do think more jurisdictions need criminal penalties for it as it can lead to real harm. Apologies if leaving it out led to confusion and I probably should've noted some of the more serious issues at some point in there.
Yes, I think you should! Because there isn’t really a way for people to be sure that “I’m coming for your fat feminist ass with my AK-47, and then I’m going to rape your daughters.” is coming from some random gutless incel stranger, or from a random gutless incel ARMED stranger who has actual plans.
Where did that come from? I’m probably old enough to be your grandmother but for me I find Dan’s posts informative and at times funny, I am sure as he said he didn’t mean to not include what you were expecting. By the way I am not Dan’s grandmother I promise you, just a older generation Aussie who enjoys reading what he has to say. 🤗
I’m in my 5th decade. You could read some sections of Lindy West’s book “Shrill,” for some accounts, or read about Gamergate.
Anyway, I don’t want to poach space here. I have enjoyed several of Dan’s articles, including this one, but I felt he was too easily glossing over something important.
Doxxing perhaps -- the vile threats were maybe shocking and distressing to me back in 2002, but they’re so common now (with nothing behind them) that to me they are very similar to “Your mother wears army boots!” (YMMV) Just meaningless negativity that is intended to provoke. So I try to make sure it fails.
Hi Dan, we refer to people as being anti social on the web but at the moment we are experiencing anti-socialism on the home front with two recent cases of people supposedly helping heart attack victims then stealing their wallets, or people who have had their homes flooded in our recent downpour statewide, coming and and stealing peoples property. I actually enjoy social media but my husband says he hates it, but is miffed if I haven’t kept him in the loop. I primarily joined so I could keep in touch with family and friends. I have gathered a few people along the way due to my art interest and have actually made a good friend by communicating with a lady from Canada. We have now met and holidayed together, it felt like we had known each other forever. If I don’t want to be friends with someone I don’t know, that is my prerogative, I don’t have to like everything that is sent my way nor donate to whatever it is they are supporting. My choice! As for the dating apps, buyer beware I say, I have a friend who is considering it, and unfortunately these days it is not like you can meet someone at the local dance, and no one really likes to form a “work relationship”, unless the chemistry is too strong.... keep up the great posts as they are informative and thought provoking and you do have a humorous streak as well.
I figured all your Dad’s tribunals were legit, based on your behavior.
This is full of clever observations. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the few substacks I read: I interact with the same pixels over and over, based on topics of mutual interest.
At the beginning I was sure this was going in the direction of, “Unlike an office, where you can be cornered into hearing about last night’s game at the break table, on social media you can “like” the post about last night’s game in less than a second, thereby satisfying that person, and keep scrolling.”
Same would be true for cute pictures of your coworkers’ kids at the pumpkin patch, except I really like those, so I actually look, then like.
And for politics, you never have to hear about it in the hospital cafeteria ever again, if they’ve gotten it out of their system on Twitter.
I think social media is genius in this way.
And it’s even been improved -- if someone asks you about something they posted which you weren’t interested in and didn’t bother to read, you can just say cheerfully “oh that darn algorithm! It doesn’t show me everything!”
In other words, I see social media as working very well -- it’s easy for me to avoid certain virtual desks and visit others -- and avoid any hurt feelings.
I generally agree with most of this! I think they could do better but I still think they mostly work pretty well.
Ha! I blame the algorithm all the time, especially for a couple of friends whose several-times-a-day posts are kind of annoying.
Fanfiction communities are all anonymous, and yet they are supportive because they are all following the same fanfiction. And if you were following one fanfiction, you would never see anything from another fanfiction.
I think Substack operates the same way. It creates walled gardens around certain interests. I follow your newsletter, so the chances are that if I come here to comment it’s because I like what you’re doing. Who would subscribe, read a very long essay, and then leave a rude comment? Hot take culture only works on Twitter because that’s how it was designed.
So I’m with you! Social media can absolutely be tweaked to encourage our better behavior instead of our worst behavior, and I think that involves better grouping of people into their interests and not just exposing them to all the people in their office with their kids and their sports and their politics. 🤣
This was a fun essay with some great suggestions. Another one I like is the downvote in Reddit, so that irrelevant and/or nasty comments tend to lose prominence. And we can always stay off social media after controversial events just to avoid the incessant takes. That’s what I do, and I also will gladly mute people if I’ve found that I come away from their posts feeling worse. People seem to forget that we’re not required to engage with every person or idea we run across.
It’s a bit facile to write off things like doxing, death threats and vile rape threats as “When I yell that an opposing player or referee sucks, he doesn’t take it personally, because he knows its meaningless talk from a distant stranger.”
I separate out doxxing from this entirely. It's a very serious issue and one I've worked on as an attorney. It's incredibly dangerous for the person being doxxed. Although I've only worked on it civilly I do think more jurisdictions need criminal penalties for it as it can lead to real harm. Apologies if leaving it out led to confusion and I probably should've noted some of the more serious issues at some point in there.
Yes, I think you should! Because there isn’t really a way for people to be sure that “I’m coming for your fat feminist ass with my AK-47, and then I’m going to rape your daughters.” is coming from some random gutless incel stranger, or from a random gutless incel ARMED stranger who has actual plans.
Where did that come from? I’m probably old enough to be your grandmother but for me I find Dan’s posts informative and at times funny, I am sure as he said he didn’t mean to not include what you were expecting. By the way I am not Dan’s grandmother I promise you, just a older generation Aussie who enjoys reading what he has to say. 🤗
I’m in my 5th decade. You could read some sections of Lindy West’s book “Shrill,” for some accounts, or read about Gamergate.
Anyway, I don’t want to poach space here. I have enjoyed several of Dan’s articles, including this one, but I felt he was too easily glossing over something important.
Doxxing perhaps -- the vile threats were maybe shocking and distressing to me back in 2002, but they’re so common now (with nothing behind them) that to me they are very similar to “Your mother wears army boots!” (YMMV) Just meaningless negativity that is intended to provoke. So I try to make sure it fails.
Hi Dan, we refer to people as being anti social on the web but at the moment we are experiencing anti-socialism on the home front with two recent cases of people supposedly helping heart attack victims then stealing their wallets, or people who have had their homes flooded in our recent downpour statewide, coming and and stealing peoples property. I actually enjoy social media but my husband says he hates it, but is miffed if I haven’t kept him in the loop. I primarily joined so I could keep in touch with family and friends. I have gathered a few people along the way due to my art interest and have actually made a good friend by communicating with a lady from Canada. We have now met and holidayed together, it felt like we had known each other forever. If I don’t want to be friends with someone I don’t know, that is my prerogative, I don’t have to like everything that is sent my way nor donate to whatever it is they are supporting. My choice! As for the dating apps, buyer beware I say, I have a friend who is considering it, and unfortunately these days it is not like you can meet someone at the local dance, and no one really likes to form a “work relationship”, unless the chemistry is too strong.... keep up the great posts as they are informative and thought provoking and you do have a humorous streak as well.