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I'm a good person. But there are large swathes of the modern internet where, if I go there, they drive me crazy. I feel better - and am actually more effective - if I stay out of them. It's not a weakness or a flaw; it's part of my nature:
"Being healthy" and "having a high tolerance for poison" are not the same thing.
Twitter is one of those places I never go. I'll read something someone I trust links me directly to, but that's about it. That's a learned avoidance, and it's good for me. Meanwhile, I keep hearing around me from other people that are plugged into Twitter that there's a thing called "cancel culture" and that it is positively rampant. It seems to me like just another of those confirmation bias things born of search engine technology: Any indication that it's anywhere, is taken as evidence that it's everywhere.
Here's a handy statistic to help your perspective: 2.4 percent of the world population uses Twitter. Of those users, ten percent of them generate 90% of Twitter's content. When you look at Twitter and think of "the world", you are swimming in a sea created almost exclusively by one fifth of one percent of the population, and utterly ignored - or only seen second-hand - by everyone else on Earth. (Me included.)
Yes, this is still a large pool in raw numbers, which makes it completely unsurprising that it provides a seemingly limitless amount of drama and strife if you go wading into it. And it's entertaining to do so, in a "bread and circuses" way, which is why stuff from Twitter is so often redistributed by entertainment networks that masquerade as news sources to claim an air of importance.
But here's the thing: You may think "cancel culture" is a dangerous pit that everyone is falling into, but you're falling into another pit, dug right next to that one, just as deep and much, much larger. The sign over that pit reads:
OBSESSING OVER HOW OTHER PEOPLE WILL REACT TO SOMETHING YOU SEE.
And it is an absolutely central feature of the modern social media landscape. It's practically the new spectator sport for everyone who isn't into sports.
Let me drag out my tried-and-true list:
1. Hilarious
2. Inflammatory
3. Clearly wrong
The strategy is, you put something that's one of these three in a prominent place on social media. Then sit back as hundreds of thousands of people decide it is their civic duty to redistribute, remove, or "correct" the thing, for the sake of the other people seeing it, or who may see it. Like the old joke about the dumb kid coming home from school, bursting in the door proudly carrying a giant turd in both hands, and shouting, "Look what I almost stepped in!"
Then, watch the ad revenue roooollllll in.
Cancel culture is an example of this, yes. But here's the funny part: So is railing against cancel culture! You are not fighting a crusade to preserve the heart of society. You are fighting a crusade against shadows, for the profit of the tech industry, just like everyone else.
Come outside! We have picnic blankets and hot tea!
"Being healthy" and "having a high tolerance for poison" are not the same thing.
Twitter is one of those places I never go. I'll read something someone I trust links me directly to, but that's about it. That's a learned avoidance, and it's good for me. Meanwhile, I keep hearing around me from other people that are plugged into Twitter that there's a thing called "cancel culture" and that it is positively rampant. It seems to me like just another of those confirmation bias things born of search engine technology: Any indication that it's anywhere, is taken as evidence that it's everywhere.
Here's a handy statistic to help your perspective: 2.4 percent of the world population uses Twitter. Of those users, ten percent of them generate 90% of Twitter's content. When you look at Twitter and think of "the world", you are swimming in a sea created almost exclusively by one fifth of one percent of the population, and utterly ignored - or only seen second-hand - by everyone else on Earth. (Me included.)Yes, this is still a large pool in raw numbers, which makes it completely unsurprising that it provides a seemingly limitless amount of drama and strife if you go wading into it. And it's entertaining to do so, in a "bread and circuses" way, which is why stuff from Twitter is so often redistributed by entertainment networks that masquerade as news sources to claim an air of importance.
But here's the thing: You may think "cancel culture" is a dangerous pit that everyone is falling into, but you're falling into another pit, dug right next to that one, just as deep and much, much larger. The sign over that pit reads:
OBSESSING OVER HOW OTHER PEOPLE WILL REACT TO SOMETHING YOU SEE.
And it is an absolutely central feature of the modern social media landscape. It's practically the new spectator sport for everyone who isn't into sports.
Let me drag out my tried-and-true list:
1. Hilarious
2. Inflammatory
3. Clearly wrong
The strategy is, you put something that's one of these three in a prominent place on social media. Then sit back as hundreds of thousands of people decide it is their civic duty to redistribute, remove, or "correct" the thing, for the sake of the other people seeing it, or who may see it. Like the old joke about the dumb kid coming home from school, bursting in the door proudly carrying a giant turd in both hands, and shouting, "Look what I almost stepped in!"
Then, watch the ad revenue roooollllll in.
Cancel culture is an example of this, yes. But here's the funny part: So is railing against cancel culture! You are not fighting a crusade to preserve the heart of society. You are fighting a crusade against shadows, for the profit of the tech industry, just like everyone else.
Come outside! We have picnic blankets and hot tea!
