196 - Resetting the mind 🧠🔥
Hey there, !
Reddit's dying, Twitter's aflame - these are good things, right?
Hot take: I am kinda happy that there's been a forcing function for me (and maybe you) to get off Twitter, Reddit, etc. - and the hand-wringing that, admittedly, I might be biased in looking for, is just unfounded / unsubstantiated.
Specifically, I'm talking about the views that 'Elon is running Twitter into the ground and thats bad', or that 'Yay now we get to go to Threads which is so much better', or 'Reddit shouldn't do things I don't want them to do, so I can stay on Reddit'.
It's so...hypocritical. We spend so much time hand-wringing the other way about social media when it was working for everyone, and there were no existential threats to their use. It reminded me of studying VCE Revolutions where the main outrage (and thus the spark to the flame) usually came to a head when the basics of existence were being threatened (food, fuel, water etc.). And for some people, that's social media.
(Although, maybe I'm just too online...)
I mean, seriously - before this time, most people were saying 'wow we should really stop using social media' and now??? I haven't seen anyone go 'okay Elon's actually doing a good thing for the world, because he's an idiot', or that 'Reddit being fucked over is a great thing for my mental health'.
Think about it:
- Twitter rate-limiting people because of 'bots' essentially prevents people from getting addicted and losing all their time to a blue bird. People celebrating by moving over to Threads were probably not using Twitter anyway, and/or aren't going to be using it soon anyway.
- Explanatory note: For me, it essentially boils down to, what's Threads for? I don't necessarily want to follow the same people on Instagram as I do on Twitter - they serve different purposes in my life - so though they solved the network problem by bootstrapping off Instagram, I don't know if they have an identity that is fundamentally different from Instagram or Twitter that is a compelling or transformative enough.
- Reddit's (somewhat) decline means that people will move on to other channels and have a chance to reset the ways they use social media. Maybe they don't have the same communities, sure, but then that also means they can set new norms and new ways of interacting that are more thought through, and have learned from previous examples. I know personally that I've used Lemmy a lot less than I used to use Reddit - and it's been a refreshing boon to my life.
- On a sidenote - I think there just isn't enough resetting, in general - the government, the economy, existing systems of power - it's just keeping on keeping on, and nothing seems to really change. So this kind of change, to me, seems like a good thing.
I'm running out of rant steam, so just to summarise: I hate that we're hypocritical about social media (collectively, as a society), and our attention is so stunted through the use of social media that we're just jumping on the bandwagon of hate and outrage without thinking that "hey, maybe this is a good thing"...
...he says, as he spends another hour on Instagram Reels...
Chat soon :)
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Ologies (podcast) - I cannot remember who recommended me, sorry, but this is fanTASTIC nerd content. Alie Ward speaks to 'ologists' of all different types - the episodes I've listened to range from volcanoes, to primates, to death, to watch-making, to makeup. A really fun interviewer, and she finds some great people to chat to. Highly recommended!
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Atomic Blonde - stylish spy thriller / action movie in a very John Wick vibe of colours, cinematography, and realistic action set in Berlin just before the wall fell...but somehow with a worse story? Like it was not only confusing, but the parts taht weren't confusing were dumb. I loved it just for eye-candy (action, style, acting), which is why I'm recommending it, but please do switch off your brain if you want to watch it. Very Bullet Train vibes - if that's a good comparison for you!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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New York Times Election Day Crossword ~ Crossword Unclued - we love stories like this, and the inventiveness of crossword puzzle setters in making something so COOL.
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The Man Who Broke Bowling - the first guy to start two-handed bowling, and then DOMINATING the professional bowling circuit. It reminds me of an article from Commoncog - To Get Good, Go After The Metagame - where people who stick too much to an existing meta and can't move on to something that provably works will be left behind. Question your orthodoxies, and try something new.
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90% of Everything is Crap - so how do you find out the 10%??