Web Excursions 2022-03-09
The new silent majority: People who don't tweet
Why it matters: The rising power and prominence of the nation's loudest, meanest voices obscures what most of us personally experience: Most people are sane and generous — and too busy to tweet.
Three stats we find reassuring:
75% of people in the U.S. never tweet.
On an average weeknight in January, just 1% of U.S. adults watched primetime Fox News (2.2 million). 0.5% tuned into MSNBC (1.15 million).
Nearly three times more Americans (56%) donated to charities during the pandemic than typically give money to politicians and parties (21%).
vorpalhex:
One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else.
If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship.
If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing..
and frankly, I don't care or want to.
I'm happy just playing some Catan once in a while.
Historically you didn't need to know everything about everyone.
Your friends will always have opinions or lifestyles you will find disagreeable -
that is the nature of human existence.
Humanity either needs to "agree to disagree" on wide swaths of things we care a whole bunch about (abortion, firearms, lgbtq, etc) or we need to go back to not discussing those things in public or polite company.
sjmm1989:
My roommate basically put it in his project for university as a similar theory to Toaster Fucker.
I too have a personal similar theory where I just refer to the 'village idiot'.
They all basically revolve around one truth I think.
The internet doesn't radicalize people. People radicalize people.
The internet is just full of people who are already radicalized in their daily life, and they are using the internet to radicalize others.
Whether it be for the left, right, or even some weird alt thing.
Penny Arcade even has their own comic strip theory called "G.I.F.T of the Internet".
Theirs is more simplistic though in that it stipulates that the anonymity of the net is the problem insofar that it gives people a fake sense of security to be who they really are on the inside. For better or worse. Usually worse.
I think all of our ideas on the matter basically resonate on the same singular issue. That people were already nuts to begin with. The internet is just making easier to identify which are fucking screwballs and ... the rest.
But then that poses a new problem. Mob mentality even of righteous people is still just as toxic as the mob mentality of fucking idiots.
taurusnoises:
"If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'm happy just playing some Catan once in a while."
I have a slightly different view of this.
People's opinions on things are always in flux, even if they sway heavily toward one side.
What we see on social media is a person's opinions without the context of a human interaction.
On social media, we see Sue's emotional response to politics without her having to negotiate that emotional response in relationship to another person sitting in front of her.
She may "believe" what she says in the moment she types it, but put her in a room with a friend who disagrees and you can watch how her views shift, push back, concede, change, challenge, etc.
On social media, there's very little of this taking place, because there's zero human intimacy at work. It belief in a vacuum not in relationship.