3 ms·
It is worthwhile to ask what the role of media, social media or traditional, is when extreme individuals on the fringes are empowered to cause us all to destruc
by stcredzero 8y ago
It is worthwhile to ask what the role of media, social media or traditional, is when extreme individuals on the fringes are empowered to cause us all to destruct each other.
We have created conditions of perverse incentives in our media. We reward extremists. We reward unfounded accusations. We reward people saying wacko things. "If it bleeds, it leads."
We need to stop allowing the extremes to "wag the dog."
EDIT: This doesn't mean we should censor people. Rather, it means we need to become a little cynical and self aware of the mechanism of outrage virality itself.
Specifically, we need to stop mindlessly rewarding mass murderers with attention. We need to stop mindlessly rewarding people who act extreme for attention, period.
- nemild 8y agoA recent quote I loved from YC's Paul Buccheit (who helped inspired "Don't be Evil at an early Google"): “[Social media] is like a game where you get 1 point for being fair and thoughtful and 1000 points for character assassination” https://twitter.com/paultoo/status/1100144882872532992 https://twitter.com/paultoo/status/1100144882872532992 This is partly why I spent so much time writing a media literacy guide to explain the incentives behind what we see in our feeds and our newspapers: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README....
- stcredzero 8y agoI feel obliged to post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc
- bilbo0s 8y agoThat's not social media, that's called "life".
- asabjorn 8y agoI do not think this holds up to evidence. If you regularly treat people you are friends with badly it is generally on you and people will choose to disengage from a relationship with you. If you regularly behave in a destructive manner towards members of a real life group then you at some point run out of individuals in that group that will invite you to real life group gatherings. This is exactly why sociopaths and psychopaths quickly run out of connections and have to move around a lot.
- zimpenfish 8y ago> If you regularly treat people you are friends with badly it is generally on you and people will choose to disengage from a relationship with you. Counterpoint: the Republican Party in the US still has strong support amongst many people its policies end up hurting.