blast-o-rama. • issue 066 • 2022-11-20
blast-o-rama.
issue 066 • 2022-11-20
no, you’re not seeing double. this actually is issue 66. i goofed up and missed a prior issue number. so now all is fixed in the archive!
yes, more twitter talk
Folks, I know I dug into this last week, and yes, I feel like there are few things less interesting than talking about the internet on the internet. But at the same time, this is my space where I can work through what’s been rolling around my brain. And this past week, much like the week before it, was an instance where it looked like Twitter was dying. Heck, I’m writing this in advance and there’s a likelihood that by the time this hits your inboxes, it’s actually dead, especially with the systems being held together by duct tape and hope, and the World Cup kicking off today.
I actually felt a major sense of loss Thursday night as word started to get around that this might be it for Twitter, and in turn, I started to look internally as to why it felt so large for me (thanks, Therapy!).
I think it’s the sense of community. I think it’s the sense of scale. I’m sure people felt this way about their World of Warcraft guilds or Halo teams, but Twitter was my space filled with my people, and there was always something interesting going on, something new to read about, something different to engage with.
I’m not going to lie, Twitter has allowed people to act on some of the most horrible impulses possible, spread hate-speech on a level unseen. But it was also a great leveler, putting the average person’s comments on the same playing field and same visibility of that of a multi-billion dollar business. No other social media site allows for that. And there might not be another like it.
To best sum it up, I share a Tweetfrom my old pal Jamie Noguchi which I think puts a bow on it all:
Twitter was like a big school lunchroom where everyone had their own interests but they could kinda see what was going on at the other tables. A lot of the alternatives feel like closed off clubs which don’t really allow for accidentally running into weird shit. I’ll miss that.
don’t apologize for having an opinion
Sometimes in life, you come across a story that speaks directly to you. There’s another one in the also across the web section this week — see if you can guess what it is! But this week, Uproxx’s Vince Mancini did a piece that I think more people need to ingest: “In Defense of Having Opinions”
It’s important not to let personal biases blind you to the good things in life, but at some point we, and specifically I mean Americans here, seem to have turned this into a crusade to obliterate all subjectivity. We have facts and fake news, moral rights and moral wrongs, focus groups, and “many people are saying,” and yet it’s become almost taboo to enjoy or dislike something “just because.”
I say: it’s time to embrace your inner caprice. Having your own distinct preferences is one of the bedrock pleasures of being human.
also from across the web
Other reads I enjoyed this week:
- A Look Back at The Weird Al Show, ‘A Show for Nobody’ - Vulture
- The 140 Funniest Tweets of All Time - Gizmodo
- The Starbucks Strike Is Working - Defector
- ‘Björk said it should sound like the Cantina band!’: the enduring influence of Star Wars’ bizarre jazz group - The Guardian
- Do You Really Want To Read What Your Doctor Writes About You? - The Atlantic
- Why Do We Find LinkedIn So Cringe? - Refinery29
- Unky Herb: An Oral History of Homer Simpson’s Long Lost Brother - Cracked.com
- The Department of Homeland Security is the pinnacle of bureaucratic dysfunction - The Verge
- The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed - The Verge
- ‘I didn’t have a single audition for a year’: Goonies and Indiana Jones child star Ke Huy Quan on finding fame again - The Guardian
- Things That Seemed Expensive When You Were A Kid That You Now Realize Aren’t So Out Of Reach, According To Reddit - Digg
- Why we all need to be a lot less hesitant about being kind - The Guardian
a programming note
Hey! Next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend. In turn, I will be taking next Sunday off. Please enjoy your time with your family!
See you December 4th!
-Marty