Delight Springs

Monday, November 14, 2022

Twitter poisoning

LISTEN. Proving again that the best social medium by far is in-person conversation over good food with people you actually know and care about, we had a fine time brunching at the 51st St Taproom yesterday. I recommend the loaded fries topped with eggs and queso and jalapenos et al. And (although I probably shouldn't publicize it), unlike all the other brunch sites we might have picked this one didn't have a long waiting list. Didn't hurt that Younger Daughter grabbed the check either. Raised her right.


Then we came home and I read Jaron Lanier's smart essay in the Times, Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned
I have observed a change, or really a narrowing, in the public behavior of people who use Twitter or other social media a lot. (“Other social media” sometimes coming into play after ejection from Twitter.)

Ejection, or disgusted self-exile. Is there any reason to think the "narrowing" won't transfer to Mastodon or any other Elon-less platform? So the caution is clear: don't use any social media a lot, except maybe brunch. Let the "bratty little boys in [the SocMed] schoolyard" torment one other. They're made for each other.

What do I think are the symptoms of Twitter poisoning? There is a childish insecurity, where before there was pride. Instead of being above it all, like traditional strongmen throughout history, the modern social media-poisoned alpha male whines and frets. This works because his followers are similarly poisoned and can relate so well...
When we were children, we all had to negotiate our way through the jungle of human power relationships at the playground. When we feel those old humiliations, anxieties and sadisms again as adults — over and over, because the algorithm has settled on that pattern as a powerful way to engage us — habit formation restimulates old patterns that had been dormant. We become children again, not in a positive, imaginative sense, but in a pathetic way...

Twitter poisoning is a little like alcoholism or gambling addiction, in that the afflicted lose all sense of proportion about their own powers. They can come to believe they have almost supernatural abilities. Little boys fantasize about energy beams shooting from their fingertips...

It's tempting to quip here about Elon's rockets, but I still think a mission to Mars is a good long-term ambition. I just don't want it to be led by a pathetic little boy. 

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