This article completely misses the mass radicalization young men have been exposed to through the internet. Growing up inundated by quotes from Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson can really fuck you up.
We absolutely must address how dangerous the internet is to our society. I think we as a species simply can’t handle the destructive potential of the internet (and ditto for News bubbles like Fox).
I think we’ve designed an environment that works assuming everyone is a rational person who can separate bullshit from real information and, unfortunately, a lot of people (young and adults) simply do not meet that requirement or don’t have the inclination to do so.
Make a Google acct and a tik tok acct and an insta acct.
Scroll on their vertical video feeds for like 1 hours. Don’t like or comment on anything. Stay on each video for the exact same amount of time.
Oh my would you look at that, it’s Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Joe Rogan, Tim Dillon, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and all kinds of other totally level headed folks.
I’ve seen this happen in my own feed because I like movie and tv commentary. Watch a MS Marvel review, bingo bang nothing but “Omg Go Woke Go Broke!” videos for a month.
The internet was great when it was just those folks who could handle it - I’d argue that it wasn’t corporations (though those didn’t help) but absolutely everyone getting online that’s made the space so much more toxic.
What you’re describing is called “adverse selection.” But it doesn’t apply here.
The internet was ruined by old fashioned greed- courtesy of said Corporates who monetized every interaction as a result of their control of two-sided networks.
We absolutely must address how dangerous the internet is to our society. I think we as a species simply can’t handle the destructive potential of the internet (and ditto for News bubbles like Fox).
Marshall McLuhan argued similarly in the 1960’s about the dangers of rushing forward with mass media, and stipulated that we had yet to understand the cultural impacts of language and writing, let alone (at the time) new media like telephones, radio, and television.
Traditionally humans have rushed headlong into any and all new communications methods without considering long-term consequences first, and study comes much later, if at all.
There are very few more quotable humans to have lived.
The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.
If that wasn’t the basis for the Black mirror episode, the Waldo moment, I don’t know what was.
Then we’ve got my personal favorite, which isn’t quite as relevant here:
Anybody who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.
Was also famous for saying
We drive forward using only our rear view mirrors
And perhaps his most quoted quip
The medium is the message
Which I don’t think was clear to people what he meant until, probably, the advent of the personal web page. Guy died before the world wide web and basically saw that tik tok would be our undoing.
Yep, there’s a reason youth violence has gone through the roof: “conservative values”, ie. violence, narcissism, sadism and a complete lack of empathy.
This article completely misses the mass radicalization young men have been exposed to through the internet. Growing up inundated by quotes from Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson can really fuck you up.
We absolutely must address how dangerous the internet is to our society. I think we as a species simply can’t handle the destructive potential of the internet (and ditto for News bubbles like Fox).
I think we’ve designed an environment that works assuming everyone is a rational person who can separate bullshit from real information and, unfortunately, a lot of people (young and adults) simply do not meet that requirement or don’t have the inclination to do so.
Wanna see how scary it is?
Spin up a VM.
Make a Google acct and a tik tok acct and an insta acct.
Scroll on their vertical video feeds for like 1 hours. Don’t like or comment on anything. Stay on each video for the exact same amount of time.
Oh my would you look at that, it’s Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Joe Rogan, Tim Dillon, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and all kinds of other totally level headed folks.
I’ve seen this happen in my own feed because I like movie and tv commentary. Watch a MS Marvel review, bingo bang nothing but “Omg Go Woke Go Broke!” videos for a month.
Not so much “the internet,” as the handful of corporations that we have allowed to run rampant for 20 years. The internet used to be great.
The internet was great when it was just those folks who could handle it - I’d argue that it wasn’t corporations (though those didn’t help) but absolutely everyone getting online that’s made the space so much more toxic.
What you’re describing is called “adverse selection.” But it doesn’t apply here.
The internet was ruined by old fashioned greed- courtesy of said Corporates who monetized every interaction as a result of their control of two-sided networks.
Thanks business school!
Marshall McLuhan argued similarly in the 1960’s about the dangers of rushing forward with mass media, and stipulated that we had yet to understand the cultural impacts of language and writing, let alone (at the time) new media like telephones, radio, and television.
Traditionally humans have rushed headlong into any and all new communications methods without considering long-term consequences first, and study comes much later, if at all.
There are very few more quotable humans to have lived.
If that wasn’t the basis for the Black mirror episode, the Waldo moment, I don’t know what was.
Then we’ve got my personal favorite, which isn’t quite as relevant here:
Was also famous for saying
And perhaps his most quoted quip
Which I don’t think was clear to people what he meant until, probably, the advent of the personal web page. Guy died before the world wide web and basically saw that tik tok would be our undoing.
Yep, there’s a reason youth violence has gone through the roof: “conservative values”, ie. violence, narcissism, sadism and a complete lack of empathy.
I guess that shit only missed me because I am gay? Like… I was radicalized by Hitchens and Dawkins before he went all terf.