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I do think Elon will provide a valuable counter-balance to the current monoculture that drives Twitter. But I do not believe Elon in of himself can really reso

I do think Elon will provide a valuable counter-balance to the current monoculture that drives Twitter. But I do not believe Elon in of himself can really resolve Twitter's ills (by my subjective assessment). Twitter and other social networks are ultimately reflections of parts of humanity. Us humans have our biases and our drives that don't just go away. You can obviously (and should) tweak the product to incentivize more productive dialog, but you can't overwrite our biases/drives/distribution of competencies by updating Twitter. Personally, I view these social networks as mirrors, revealing parts of our humanity as it currently is. A lot of us don't like what we see, and we fixate strictly on the mirror, suggesting it's strictly the mirror's fault for displaying the unflattering image.

philosopher1234 4y ago
I recommend this paper: https://philpapers.org/archive/NGUHTG.pdf https://philpapers.org/archive/NGUHTG.pdf or this podcast on the same topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-c-thi-nguyen.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/podcasts/transcript-ezra-... Social media is a mirror in the same way that baseball is a mirror. Individual personalities are tested and the fact we're playing it is because we're human, but the rules of baseball are not the rules of life. When we're playing baseball we're doing something very different from when we're relating to each other or spending time together. Twitter is a social game, and distorts the behavior of its participants. Its a fun house mirror, not a reflecting pool.
- gowld 4y ago
  Baseball is a game, and a little bit of "relating to each other or spending time together" (which is why there are sometimes brawls). Twitter is "relating to each other or spending time together" to a much larger extent, even though some people are using it as a game or (more commonly) a business.
  - philosopher1234 4y ago
    Yes, twitter has more interpersonal than baseball does, but the points system looms large over every word.

philosopher1234 4y ago

I recommend this paper: https://philpapers.org/archive/NGUHTG.pdf https://philpapers.org/archive/NGUHTG.pdf or this podcast on the same topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-c-thi-nguyen.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/podcasts/transcript-ezra-... Social media is a mirror in the same way that baseball is a mirror. Individual personalities are tested and the fact we're playing it is because we're human, but the rules of baseball are not the rules of life. When we're playing baseball we're doing something very different from when we're relating to each other or spending time together. Twitter is a social game, and distorts the behavior of its participants. Its a fun house mirror, not a reflecting pool.

gowld 4y ago
Baseball is a game, and a little bit of "relating to each other or spending time together" (which is why there are sometimes brawls). Twitter is "relating to each other or spending time together" to a much larger extent, even though some people are using it as a game or (more commonly) a business.
- philosopher1234 4y ago
  Yes, twitter has more interpersonal than baseball does, but the points system looms large over every word.