3 ms·

At the risk of "microcomplaining," I'd like to deride this as yet another thoughtless, substance-free article from the NYT. With an amusing lack of self-awaren

by rtl49 11y ago

At the risk of "microcomplaining," I'd like to deride this as yet another thoughtless, substance-free article from the NYT. With an amusing lack of self-awareness, a non-issue is identified (as a "seismic shift," no less) and connected with unrelated social phenomena using misinterpretations of the available evidence, many of which, conveniently, have also been described in other hyperlinked NYT articles. If you believe this is a new phenomenon, I invite you to read just about any novel written during the Victorian era. If you manage to endure the first dinner party dialog between members of the upper class, I think you will take issue with the thrust of this article. As for the implications of social media, that it can amplify certain aspects of human behavior is such a humdrum, "middle-brow" observation that I'm surprised this wasn't written by Thomas Friedman.

spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
The letters columns of news papers have been fun of micro complaints since time began.
hashkb 11y ago
Sounds like a macrocomplaint about microphenomena? If you manage to endure the first dinner party dialog between members of the upper class I think this is a little different; a dinner party presumably is full of people who want to listen to each other talk. (And novels are generally more thoughtfully prepared than tweets.) I don't know if it's a seismic shift, but anecdotally I can say that my microcomplaints around the dinner table don't get likes like Kanye and Kim's tweets do. Edit: something about the fine line between comedy and whining.
- rtl49 11y ago
  I agree the situation isn't directly analogous, though presumably one only reads updates from people whom one wishes to follow. I was trying to suggest that, with respect to this particular issue, social media has simply amplified a human tendency that has existed historically. In other words, it hasn't produced some "emergent" phenomenon that merits special consideration, as this article suggests.
jonnathanson 11y ago
Agreed. The article reads as a halfhearted attempt to mine cultural significance from social media, probably under pressure from a looming deadline or a quota. Also, the tie between "microcomplaints" and "microaggressions" (with the Yale example thrown in) feels lazy and misguided. There's plenty to be written about the culture of victimhood vis-a-vis "microaggressions," and many fine articles have been written about it already. Connecting that issue to, say, Kanye West's tweet-gripes about Persian rugs feels glib. The author comes closer to something resembling an interesting point when he talks about Gary Cooper -- though not for the reasons he thinks. One could write a fascinating, if not necessarily profound, article about the difference between yesterday's celebrities and today's. What seems to compel today's stars to blab about the pointless minutiae of their first-class lives on a regular basis? For that matter, why are minutiae being elevated to the level of important cultural discourse? I don't know -- probably something to do with the 24-hour news cycle, social media, and the need to fill a content void -- but I'd love to find out precisely why, and more important, what we can do to reverse the trend.

by rtl49 11y ago

spacecowboy_lon 11y ago

The letters columns of news papers have been fun of micro complaints since time began.

hashkb 11y ago

Sounds like a macrocomplaint about microphenomena? If you manage to endure the first dinner party dialog between members of the upper class I think this is a little different; a dinner party presumably is full of people who want to listen to each other talk. (And novels are generally more thoughtfully prepared than tweets.) I don't know if it's a seismic shift, but anecdotally I can say that my microcomplaints around the dinner table don't get likes like Kanye and Kim's tweets do. Edit: something about the fine line between comedy and whining.

rtl49 11y ago
I agree the situation isn't directly analogous, though presumably one only reads updates from people whom one wishes to follow. I was trying to suggest that, with respect to this particular issue, social media has simply amplified a human tendency that has existed historically. In other words, it hasn't produced some "emergent" phenomenon that merits special consideration, as this article suggests.

jonnathanson 11y ago

Agreed. The article reads as a halfhearted attempt to mine cultural significance from social media, probably under pressure from a looming deadline or a quota. Also, the tie between "microcomplaints" and "microaggressions" (with the Yale example thrown in) feels lazy and misguided. There's plenty to be written about the culture of victimhood vis-a-vis "microaggressions," and many fine articles have been written about it already. Connecting that issue to, say, Kanye West's tweet-gripes about Persian rugs feels glib. The author comes closer to something resembling an interesting point when he talks about Gary Cooper -- though not for the reasons he thinks. One could write a fascinating, if not necessarily profound, article about the difference between yesterday's celebrities and today's. What seems to compel today's stars to blab about the pointless minutiae of their first-class lives on a regular basis? For that matter, why are minutiae being elevated to the level of important cultural discourse? I don't know -- probably something to do with the 24-hour news cycle, social media, and the need to fill a content void -- but I'd love to find out precisely why, and more important, what we can do to reverse the trend.