I think maybe those of us who are Extremely Online are gaining slightly longer attention spans.
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I think maybe those of us who are Extremely Online are gaining slightly longer attention spans.
I was just thinking about Bill Burr & how his comments on his podcast months later are still all about him selling out in Riyadh, & yeah, it's only a couple months, & over time people care less & less, but I think he expected any backlash he got to be a flash in the pan.
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Burr is a millionaire who is going to be just fine, but I don't think he imagined people would still be hammering him in December for performing at the behest of the Saudi Royal Family in October.
And not just hammering him, but reminding/informing others (like I am right now).
I think people are adapting to how their attention & energy get siphoned off & are behaving differently.
Like I said, this can be for good or ill, because sustaining attention on someone's supposed bad behavior is not always going to be great. Sometimes people need time to change. Sometimes the response is far more intense than the initial thing that sparked it probably deserved. Sometimes it can go too far or backfire.
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I think maybe those of us who are Extremely Online are gaining slightly longer attention spans.
I was just thinking about Bill Burr & how his comments on his podcast months later are still all about him selling out in Riyadh, & yeah, it's only a couple months, & over time people care less & less, but I think he expected any backlash he got to be a flash in the pan.
The thing is, there was a time when he probably would have been right about that; people would have talked about it for *maybe* 3 days, but I think people are learning that if they want their outrage to count for anything at all, they have to hang onto it like a dog with a bone.
The whole trick has been that there is always something new to look at & be distracted by. There are so many things to be outraged about that it's hard to actually hold *anyone* accountable.
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The thing is, there was a time when he probably would have been right about that; people would have talked about it for *maybe* 3 days, but I think people are learning that if they want their outrage to count for anything at all, they have to hang onto it like a dog with a bone.
The whole trick has been that there is always something new to look at & be distracted by. There are so many things to be outraged about that it's hard to actually hold *anyone* accountable.
And I feel like internet culture—for good or ill—is starting to compensate for that.
If your attention can only be held for 5 minutes before you're rushing off to the next outrage (and there will always be more) then everything will just slip past you.
I think people are becoming more dogged in their outrage. They pick people they are disappointed in & specific things that are hard lines for them & don't just drop them. You gotta pick your battles.
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And I feel like internet culture—for good or ill—is starting to compensate for that.
If your attention can only be held for 5 minutes before you're rushing off to the next outrage (and there will always be more) then everything will just slip past you.
I think people are becoming more dogged in their outrage. They pick people they are disappointed in & specific things that are hard lines for them & don't just drop them. You gotta pick your battles.
Burr is a millionaire who is going to be just fine, but I don't think he imagined people would still be hammering him in December for performing at the behest of the Saudi Royal Family in October.
And not just hammering him, but reminding/informing others (like I am right now).
I think people are adapting to how their attention & energy get siphoned off & are behaving differently.
-
Like I said, this can be for good or ill, because sustaining attention on someone's supposed bad behavior is not always going to be great. Sometimes people need time to change. Sometimes the response is far more intense than the initial thing that sparked it probably deserved. Sometimes it can go too far or backfire.
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M monkee@other.li shared this topic
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Internet outrage is still often dangerous & chaotic, but regardless, I think maybe people are changing how they direct their energy, & I think in cases where accountability is the desired outcome, that may be good news.
And honestly, I think we are learning from the bot armies that have been driving false outrage & yanking people around.
We're learning that persistence, just putting something out there over & over & over again, can affect people's very perception of reality. This is the game they've been playing with us for over a decade.
Powerful folks have been yanking our chains with fake internet activity, fake people generating fake outrage. We have to learn to yank the chain in the opposite direction.
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And honestly, I think we are learning from the bot armies that have been driving false outrage & yanking people around.
We're learning that persistence, just putting something out there over & over & over again, can affect people's very perception of reality. This is the game they've been playing with us for over a decade.
Powerful folks have been yanking our chains with fake internet activity, fake people generating fake outrage. We have to learn to yank the chain in the opposite direction.
It was easy to manipulate us all when these manipulation tactics were brand new. We had no defenses & no way of knowing what was really going on.
But as it's been revealed exactly how much online vitriol & division has been completely inorganic, we can now defend ourselves.
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It was easy to manipulate us all when these manipulation tactics were brand new. We had no defenses & no way of knowing what was really going on.
But as it's been revealed exactly how much online vitriol & division has been completely inorganic, we can now defend ourselves.
It's been really discouraging knowing how easily deceived people were, how easy it was to control & shape the conversation. But it's been a decade or more of this shit! People learn. What used to work for them will not work forever. That's not how life works. That's not how people work.
Just because people fell for it THEN doesn't mean they will fall for it forever.
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It's been really discouraging knowing how easily deceived people were, how easy it was to control & shape the conversation. But it's been a decade or more of this shit! People learn. What used to work for them will not work forever. That's not how life works. That's not how people work.
Just because people fell for it THEN doesn't mean they will fall for it forever.
So I guess that's my word of encouragement for today:
Yes, we know we've been played.NBot farms & social media manipulation & all that shit.
And yes, we know it worked. It gave us Trump. It gave us Brexit. It has stoked the fires of horrible bigotry.
BUT
the world is not static. The things that have already happened force people to adapt. The year is 2025, not 2015.
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M monkee@chaos.social shared this topic