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Twitter has always been a refuge of the small minded and the most superficial aspects of our society. Couple that with raging narcissism, dog-whistle politics,

by text70 6y ago

Twitter has always been a refuge of the small minded and the most superficial aspects of our society. Couple that with raging narcissism, dog-whistle politics, racism, and you have a weaponized platform. This is the dark side of the tech. /u The light side is that it allows almost real-time reporting of current events, crowdsorcing, and sentiment feedback to allow for responsible action by people who pay attention.

saagarjha 6y ago
Surely Twitter is both, just like every other platform?
- ryandvm 6y ago
  I'm not sure it is. Twitter is short form by design. Most issues are complex. I would suggest that short form dissertation on complex issues is pointless at best and more often than not simply stokes conflict. Have Twitter (and Facebook) provided valuable information to the world? Sure. Have they also harmed democracies? I think it's fairly obvious they have. Oh shoot, turns out it's a complex issue...
  - Joeri 6y ago
    The quality of conversation on facebook is not higher than twitter, just more verbose. Twitter’s short form is not the cause for its deficiencies, the low threshold for reaching a wide audience is.
- text70 6y ago
  I like to compare twitter to current modern language prediction models. Instead of seeding the ML model with a sentence and getting an output tree, you are seeding the social consciousness of people and getting an organic output. This is why intention is so important when interacting with new technologies.
twybbque 6y ago
Almost real-time reporting and rumor mill. The amount of half truths, lies, doctored / out of context imagery is staggering. Not convinced that having a real-time rumor mill in times of crisis and social discord helps anyone other than cynical political actors.
r00fus 6y ago
Twitter is horrible, but at least it's not Facebook. After a while on the site, it's fairly easy to see what's organic and what's promoting something. Lots of insightful commentary you don't see elsewhere.
- senectus1 6y ago
  yeah, because twitter is the land of brain farts I allocate it the same level of focus, but FB.. its deeper and more insidious. personally I wont touch it.

by text70 6y ago

saagarjha 6y ago

Surely Twitter is both, just like every other platform?

ryandvm 6y ago
I'm not sure it is. Twitter is short form by design. Most issues are complex. I would suggest that short form dissertation on complex issues is pointless at best and more often than not simply stokes conflict. Have Twitter (and Facebook) provided valuable information to the world? Sure. Have they also harmed democracies? I think it's fairly obvious they have. Oh shoot, turns out it's a complex issue...
- Joeri 6y ago
  The quality of conversation on facebook is not higher than twitter, just more verbose. Twitter’s short form is not the cause for its deficiencies, the low threshold for reaching a wide audience is.
text70 6y ago
I like to compare twitter to current modern language prediction models. Instead of seeding the ML model with a sentence and getting an output tree, you are seeding the social consciousness of people and getting an organic output. This is why intention is so important when interacting with new technologies.

twybbque 6y ago

Almost real-time reporting and rumor mill. The amount of half truths, lies, doctored / out of context imagery is staggering. Not convinced that having a real-time rumor mill in times of crisis and social discord helps anyone other than cynical political actors.

r00fus 6y ago

Twitter is horrible, but at least it's not Facebook. After a while on the site, it's fairly easy to see what's organic and what's promoting something. Lots of insightful commentary you don't see elsewhere.

senectus1 6y ago
yeah, because twitter is the land of brain farts I allocate it the same level of focus, but FB.. its deeper and more insidious. personally I wont touch it.