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> What is Twitter but a reflection of our own society? A society in which the village idiot gets a megaphone and can cheat his/her way into amplifying that meg

by mbesto 5y ago

> What is Twitter but a reflection of our own society? A society in which the village idiot gets a megaphone and can cheat his/her way into amplifying that megaphone with no recourse? Or a terrorist disguised as a village idiot can do the same? Then sure yes Twitter is a great personification of our current society(ies).

passivate 5y ago
>A society in which the village idiot gets a megaphone and can cheat his/her way into amplifying that megaphone with no recourse? That is not accurate. The reality is the opposite of what you said. The megaphone is actually due to people voluntarily gathering around the person to listen to what they say. People only interact with content/people they agree with and this is causing social media bubbles.
- mbesto 5y ago
  > The megaphone is actually due to people voluntarily gathering around the person to listen to what they say. It's based on inflated numbers derived from false information. Tell me this - if you saw two adjacent town square forums and one person had 10 people listening and another one had 100 people listening to them, what are the odds the 111th person goes to listen to one over the other? The 100 people of course. This is effectively how twitter works, but can be gamed by fake "crowds" of bots. So, yes people are voluntarily listening to those with influence, but the gatherers are given inaccurate information to make that decision. The distinction is important.
gretch 5y ago
It's not the same thing because you can simply just choose not to go to twitter. That's not possible with sound waves at the town square. If we all agreed that twitter was trash and we all just stop going, then it's over - that village idiot has no power. I've stopped. Presumably you stopped too. If you are still going, maybe you're the idiot?
- mbesto 5y ago
  > It's not the same thing Personification != same thing. I think you missed the point. > That's not possible with sound waves at the town square. Huh? I can simply not go into the town square. > If we all agreed that twitter was trash and we all just stop going, then it's over - that village idiot has no power. Exactly. but there are enough people benefitting from Twitter that they simply don't care that the village idiot has power (or they are the village idiot themselves).

by mbesto 5y ago

passivate 5y ago

>A society in which the village idiot gets a megaphone and can cheat his/her way into amplifying that megaphone with no recourse? That is not accurate. The reality is the opposite of what you said. The megaphone is actually due to people voluntarily gathering around the person to listen to what they say. People only interact with content/people they agree with and this is causing social media bubbles.

mbesto 5y ago
> The megaphone is actually due to people voluntarily gathering around the person to listen to what they say. It's based on inflated numbers derived from false information. Tell me this - if you saw two adjacent town square forums and one person had 10 people listening and another one had 100 people listening to them, what are the odds the 111th person goes to listen to one over the other? The 100 people of course. This is effectively how twitter works, but can be gamed by fake "crowds" of bots. So, yes people are voluntarily listening to those with influence, but the gatherers are given inaccurate information to make that decision. The distinction is important.

gretch 5y ago

It's not the same thing because you can simply just choose not to go to twitter. That's not possible with sound waves at the town square. If we all agreed that twitter was trash and we all just stop going, then it's over - that village idiot has no power. I've stopped. Presumably you stopped too. If you are still going, maybe you're the idiot?

mbesto 5y ago
> It's not the same thing Personification != same thing. I think you missed the point. > That's not possible with sound waves at the town square. Huh? I can simply not go into the town square. > If we all agreed that twitter was trash and we all just stop going, then it's over - that village idiot has no power. Exactly. but there are enough people benefitting from Twitter that they simply don't care that the village idiot has power (or they are the village idiot themselves).