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All statements about attention economy

227 statements about attention economy in 163 videos, by upload date.

Back to attention economy.

2008

  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank argues Twitter is not for telling anyone how you are but for defining yourself through the self the internet lets you create across many platforms. (hedged) — 00:01:39
  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank admits he cannot complain, since this is largely what Brotherhood 2.0 and Nerdfighting are about, but finds it confusing and asks whether this is how we define ourselves now. — 00:02:12
  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank says Twitter followers are a new, undefined kind of relationship, probably like his with Nerdfighters: not fans, not friends, but in between; some Nerdfighters are now his friends. (hedged) — 00:02:12
  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank says this serves twitterers, vloggers and bloggers: interaction with people who value their humour and ideas, and nothing matters more in this society than having your ideas valued. — 00:02:41
  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank says Twitter, like vlogging, is about getting 'currency that's not money', hard to come by; he hopes he provides it for others and thanks viewers for giving it to him. — 00:03:10
  • 2008-04-30 (said on 2008-05-01, implied) · BLOOD! I'm a KILLER! — Hank says he doesn't feel bad: viewers watching the videos are not wasting time. — 00:02:09
  • 2008-04-30 (said on 2008-05-01, implied) · BLOOD! I'm a KILLER! — Hank argues we can choose to spend our time communicating, participating and creating instead of passively consuming what media companies give us. — 00:02:49
  • 2008-04-30 (said on 2008-05-01, implied) · BLOOD! I'm a KILLER! — Hank says YouTube and the internet provide ways to participate, and hopes the Vlogbrothers are something viewers and the brothers do together, not a waste of time. (hedged) — 00:03:18

2009

  • 2009-09-15 · Internetless in Maine — Hank concludes he cannot understand people complexly unless he occasionally spends days away from the technology that is his home, work, fun, play and soapbox. — 00:03:05

2010

  • 2010-04-07 · Shmancy Hotel Room Is Shmancy — John has long thought Google is technically making individuals stupider: the memory in our heads is less needed when Google indexes massive external hard drives. (hedged) — 00:01:29
  • 2010-04-07 · Shmancy Hotel Room Is Shmancy — John worries that as we spend more time online we will lose interest in, and think we no longer need, long-form narratives, long central to being a person. (hedged) — 00:02:20
  • 2010-04-07 · Shmancy Hotel Room Is Shmancy — John says he sometimes does: although he loves books, he puts down even books he enjoys to look at the flashy lights of the internet. — 00:02:48
  • 2010-07-20 (said on 2010-07-19, implied) · I Like Balls — John says the prevailing belief on the internet, in television and in movies is that all views are good views. — 00:01:14

2011

2012

  • 2012-01-31 · How It Felt — John: Like the internet, the tour went by very fast, like pressing the down key on Tumblr; John says a problem with the internet is that things pass too fast to really experience them. — 00:00:30
  • 2012-05-25 · The Subway Where I Used To Go (Somebody That I Used To Know / Gotye Parody) — Hank argues the affluent eyeball (anyone with internet fast enough for YouTube counts as affluent) is one of Earth's most valuable commodities, so valuable that services are given free for it. — 00:02:02
  • 2012-07-10 · Feeling More Alive: Fahrenheit 451's The Hearth and the Salamander — John asks whether we have replaced intellectual engagement with superficial browsing, and whether sustained attention is possible amid distractions, where a CSI episode can be rewatched unrecognized. (unsure) — 00:03:39
  • 2012-07-27 · Tumblr: The Musical — recommendation: Hank calls Tumblr a weird but very fun place and urges viewers not to spend their whole lives there but to go do other, even outside, things. (playful) — 00:03:34
  • 2012-09-18 (said on 2012-09-16, implied) · Existential Airport Anxiety — John agrees with Montag that nobody feels listened to, because we don't listen to the voices on social media; we just use them for distraction. — 00:01:01
  • 2012-09-18 (said on 2012-09-16, implied) · Existential Airport Anxiety — John says that nearly every time he checks his phone it is from fear of feeling that deeper pain, and that to be engaged one must first overcome the fear of engagement. — 00:02:58

2013

  • 2013-01-08 (said on 2013-01-05, implied) · Addicted to the Internet — John: More generally, John says he is a little worried that he has become addicted to the internet. (hedged) — 00:00:41
  • 2013-01-08 (said on 2013-01-05, implied) · Addicted to the Internet — John says he loves the internet and that the community and connection he feels through it have made his life richer and better. (hedged) — 00:01:16
  • 2013-05-24 · What's Up with Start Ups — Hank's theory: a social media platform's valuation has nothing to do with the money it can make; buyers are purchasing users' lives, i.e. us. — 00:00:00
  • 2013-05-24 · What's Up with Start Ups — Hank says buyers are not paying for revenue or even potential revenue: what is valued is the user who spends time on the site; he spends time, not money, on Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr. — 00:00:42
  • 2013-05-24 · What's Up with Start Ups — Hank finds big tech's bidding war for his time weird and worrying, not because people shouldn't spend time online, but because savvy companies see value in being 'the lens' on his world. — 00:01:03

2014

  • 2014-06-24 · In Pursuit of Quiet — John says quiet is interesting to talk about on YouTube because attention has become so fractured online that YouTube videos have no room left for any silence. — 00:00:28
  • 2014-06-24 · In Pursuit of Quiet — John says that on the internet, and maybe outside it, quiet can feel discomforting: getting through even a few seconds requires a focus we are not used to summoning. (hedged) — 00:01:17

2015

2016

2017

  • 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John thinks Twitter and Facebook are useful, important and in pockets beautiful, and he has benefited a lot, but most of the time his feeling on the social internet is 'ahhh'. (hedged) — 00:00:35
  • 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John feels that inside the feed he becomes a person he dislikes: skimming instead of engaging, valuing cleverness over compassion, and clicking clickbait, which creates a world with more clickbait. (hedged) — 00:02:04
  • 2017-04-28 · Can You Trust Mainstream Media? — Hank says online we see our feed rather than a front page, and feeds are controlled not by experts but often by our worst instincts: the hive mind turns the front page into drama, controversy and demonization. — 00:01:17
  • 2017-05-10 · Seeing Myself Through a Cat's Eyes — Hank says he and John love documentaries but thinks they have a problem: we are busy with work and with the distractions of the computer. (hedged) — 00:00:05
  • 2017-05-12 · Things That You Just Might Love — Hank is frustrated that the more attention and money you have, the more you can get, so attention and money consolidate and things become less equal. — 00:00:00
  • 2017-05-12 · Things That You Just Might Love — Hank loves that a newly connected, more global society lets us see more cool creations and lets more people create professionally, and thinks we should take advantage of it. (hedged) — 00:03:35
  • 2017-06-06 · My Favorite Subreddits: Joy, Wonder, Knowledge, and Birds with Arms — John describes Reddit as a link aggregator of communities called subreddits; browsing it uncurated is a little unpleasant and at times kind of toxic, but it has many wonderful corners. (hedged) — 00:00:12
  • 2017-07-21 · On Condom Failure — Hank hopes the internet and scientists' continuing work will let people get better information and make better decisions, even as some keep fighting to hide it. (hedged) — 00:03:41
  • 2017-09-12 · How Will the World End? Why Even Get Out of Bed? It's Question Tuesday. — John thinks some pockets of the internet make us feel better, but the wiring of the human brain and the architecture of the social internet make it hard, for him at least, to stay in them. (hedged) — 00:01:07
  • 2017-12-19 · History Is Happening — John says participants reminded him the social internet is not only passive scrolling but hearing stories, becoming better informed and making deeper connections. — 00:01:53
  • 2017-12-26 · LEAVE IT IN 2017 — John says the social internet is not inherently good or bad, but right now it is bad for him. — 00:00:58
  • 2017-12-26 · LEAVE IT IN 2017 — John: Social media feeds don't make you happier or better informed because they aren't trying to: algorithms are designed to maximize time on site and ad impressions, and do it very well. — 00:01:13
  • 2017-12-26 · LEAVE IT IN 2017 — John swings between seeing the social internet as the solution to all humanity's problems and as burnt garbage; both extremes are invalid, so he will embrace nuance. — 00:01:29

2018

  • 2018-01-05 · Making a Better YouTube — Hank has philosophical problems with a company training neural networks to hack the brain into watching more, but every social platform does it and those that don't will lose out over the next ten years. — 00:01:34
  • 2018-01-09 · Your Attention — John thinks that is true not only of Twitter but of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and so on. (hedged) — 00:00:28
  • 2018-01-09 · Your Attention — John says all these companies want as much of our attention as they can get because that is how they make money, which is what they exist to do. — 00:02:40
  • 2018-01-09 · Your Attention — John says they want our attention, and it is very hard to turn down the feasts they lay before us. — 00:02:58
  • 2018-01-26 · I Wrote a Book. I WROTE A BOOK. How did I do that? — Hank: One of those things is how the internet radicalizes us. — 00:02:39
  • 2018-04-13 · Who is in Control? — Hank: Two things are clear: what is in your feed and how it is served can lastingly affect who you are and how you feel, and social media's business model relies on selling that power for profit. — 00:01:08
  • 2018-04-13 · Who is in Control? — Hank: Facebook is worth half a trillion dollars because it can capture your attention and because of what it knows about you. — 00:02:16
  • 2018-04-13 · Who is in Control? — Hank: Facebook isn't the product being sold, since it is free: you are not the customer but the product, and on the social internet your attention is their dollars. — 00:02:43
  • 2018-05-08 · Old Man Yells at Cloud — John: From age 14 until a few years ago the social internet gave John deep, meaningful relationships he struggled to find IRL; now it mostly makes him anxious and spirally without deepening connection. — 00:01:52
  • 2018-06-01 · Destroying My Router with a Hammer (and etc.) — Hank: One of Hank's favorite things about being alive now is that he can Google pretty much anything and it is there. — 00:00:17
  • 2018-06-26 · How's the Water? — John: Especially about 21st-century life, John has no idea what we are swimming in: he doesn't know if the social internet is good or bad. (unsure) — 00:01:59
  • 2018-07-03 · How Does This End? — John also thinks YouTube is amazing, with more good stuff being uploaded than ever. (hedged) — 00:01:37
  • 2018-07-31 · On Prepositions — John says that now, with so much more to do and so many more people there, being in his phone feels thrilling, terrifying, overwhelming and, most of all, weird. — 00:02:57
  • 2018-10-16 · Life's Library — John has lately been missing reading with many people and a slightly less open, more community-oriented internet where people do and make things together. — 00:00:39
  • 2018-10-23 · Why Are Humans Suddenly Getting Better at Tetris? — John: It is fashionable to call the internet a festering cesspool of toxicity, and it is, but it is also many other things, including a main driver of Tetris performance. — 00:03:11
  • 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — John believes his attention is all he has and is very uncomfortable that social internet companies have hacked his brain to capture and monetize it. — 00:00:29
  • 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — John's second problem: the companies running the social internet are incentivized not to give him accurate or helpful information but information that holds his attention on their platform while he ingests advertising. — 00:01:27
  • 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — John: The companies are happy, having monetized many hours of his attention, but John doesn't think the world, or his life, is better for it. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • 2018-11-07 · A New Thing? — Hank feels the pendulum may have swung too far, and he is now much more interested in innovating in physical experiences. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • 2018-11-16 · Doing This Makes Me Happy, but Maybe it Doesn't' Seem that Way? — Hank adds that the 2018 internet has a less carefree vibe than the 2008 internet. (hedged) — 00:02:10
  • 2018-12-11 · When the Internet Came Home — John: After drinking from the internet's fire hose for more than 25 years, John has begun to feel more of its negative side effects. — 00:02:34

2019

  • 2019-01-08 · I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going — John needs the internet on his computer, but the internet is not the problem; his internet is, and for it to change, he needs to change. — 00:02:45
  • 2019-01-18 · Should You Burn Dirty Fuel? — Hank: The tweet spawned a great deal of surprisingly healthy conversation on Twitter; Hank is proud he used Twitter for good, then jokes he undid it with a later tweet. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-01-22 · Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle's Let It Snow — John calls it a small deal but a personal experience of a broader phenomenon that concerns him: clickability is more important than accuracy. — 00:02:10
  • 2019-01-22 · Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle's Let It Snow — John says people making things online want algorithms to pick their work, so they are incentivized to tell whatever truth will capture attention. — 00:02:20
  • 2019-02-19 · Battling Apathy and Searching for Meaning on Question Tuesday — John: Off social media, John says he treated Instagram and Twitter like first love, as if an experience's realness depended on its sharedness; he enjoys looking at things outside the frame of shareability. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-03-08 · Does "The Press" Hate YouTube? — Hank loves YouTube but it makes him uneasy too: being a platform without gatekeepers makes it interesting but also creates real problems. — 00:02:39
  • 2019-09-27 · Crisis — Hank: Grabbing every tweet the moment it comes out is like stuffing peanut M&Ms in your mouth: four is not better than two, and 17 is unhealthy, messy and not enjoyable. (playful) — 00:02:05
  • 2019-11-06 · Can You Be a Good Person in 2019? — Hank says the internet has been good at showing some people the many ways unintended harm is done, while insulating others from it, as if it amplifies your worldview. — 00:02:22
  • 2019-11-07 · I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. — announcement: John is not going back to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram or Facebook, not because they are evil but because right now they don't work for him; he is happier and more productive without them. — 00:02:15
  • 2019-11-19 · Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit — In a comment John says the problem is systemic: Reddit and similar systems profit from holding attention, so they will always surface inaccurate information. — creator comment
  • 2019-11-19 · Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit — John says nuance is less likely than outrage to get 129,000 upvotes, and until that changes we will be swimming in misinformation. — 00:03:48
  • 2019-11-29 · My Most Controversial Opinion — Hank: Voicing Twitter, Hank says you're just supposed to say something dumb that everybody will be mad about, to make people mad, because it's engaging. (satire) — 00:00:30
  • 2019-11-29 · My Most Controversial Opinion — Hank: Voicing Twitter, Hank says the formula is a dumb opinion most people despise while a minority backs you, which keeps the conversation going. (satire) — 00:00:53
  • 2019-11-29 · My Most Controversial Opinion — Hank: When Twitter yells at him for the controversial opinion it asked for, Hank tells Twitter this is the world we have chosen for ourselves. (playful) — 00:02:36
  • 2019-12-10 · On Loneliness — John: Quitting the social internet helped his loneliness, since he used those platforms unhealthily, in superficial connection that left him feeling deeply alone. — 00:03:09
  • 2019-12-27 · Why I'm Worried about 2020 — Hank worries that tension, partly manufactured by leaders, the architecture of the social internet or Russian bot farms, will keep pulling at the bonds of community, as it did over the decade. — 00:01:22

2020

  • 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John also wants to continue not losing large swaths of his life scrolling through Twitter as dread washes over him. — 00:03:09
  • 2020-03-13 · The Anxious Scroll — Hank: During the anxious scroll Hank feels he is doing something useful, seeing the same three to five stories so often they seem like 300 to 500, wanting to know what tomorrow and three weeks will bring; it uncovers nothing. — 00:01:08
  • 2020-05-12 · We Could All Use a Little Change — John and Alice spotted a great horned owl in the backyard, researched its yellow eyes and watched videos; he wrote gratitude for the owl-enthusiast internet, the owl and the backyard. — 00:01:27
  • 2020-06-30 · i like it — John: From how platforms use our attention to how online experience both humanizes and dehumanizes others, John says the book captures what now feels like for him. — 00:01:02
  • 2020-07-07 · You're a Rock Star — John: Reading it, John saw how online experience had fractured his attention, made him seek things he didn't want, and let corporations monetizing his attention shape his daily life. — 00:02:10
  • 2020-07-17 · So Much to See — Hank: Abundance fractures society, leaving fewer shared touchstones, but gives people who had no access to such careers or to any influence some access. — 00:03:27
  • 2020-08-25 · Somebody once told me… — John: After Noah's claim that Trump will be re-elected, John says many social media algorithms value engagement over accuracy, so engaging predictions beat well-informed ones; sports talk radio shows it offline too. — 00:01:27
  • 2020-10-09 · The Rax Guy — John: So John must be careful what he pays attention to, because the loudest and most outrageous stuff is, for him at least, often the stuff of nightmares. — 00:03:18
  • 2020-10-13 (said on 2020-10-05, implied) · Me from the Past: A Pizzamas Miracle — John: On 5 October 2020, John predicts the platforms will keep recognizing that usage rises with uncertainty and fear, so the feeds they show us will increase that uncertainty and fear. — 00:02:26
  • 2020-10-13 (said on 2020-10-05, implied) · Me from the Past: A Pizzamas Miracle — John says we'll be left wondering whether algorithms wanting us scared, to capture and monetize our attention, came before or after our political, social and economic instability. (unsure) — 00:02:55

2021

  • 2021-01-12 · My 2021 Vision Board — John: Under 'read books, not tweets', John says reading Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams or even Paul Farmer's upsetting book on Sierra Leone and Ebola leaves him informed and engaged, without Twitter's panicky dopamine rush. — 00:02:45
  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — Hank: They are both creators and audience: ideas get more radical because that engages, and they consume more such content, a feedback loop that can only radicalize. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — Hank: With the bottom crowded, people seeking meaning, attention and status the only currencies, and outrage rewarded, we get an arms race of radicalization pulling radio, TV and politicians along. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-03-02 · What's Not in the Frame — John calls it the central trick of the social internet: creators choose what is inside the frame, but viewers can't help believing it, because it is all they can see. — 00:01:27
  • 2021-03-26 · Why I'm Worried about 2021 — Hank worries we have spent a year cooped up on social media, where the average stranger you hear about sucks because strangers who don't suck don't become memes. — 00:02:55
  • 2021-04-30 · Are We the Baddies?? A Quick Look at a Discourse — Hank says Twitter is dystopic: a room without walls where everyone must perform for everyone, with no space for careful, thoughtful, de-escalating conversation. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-05-25 · The Anthropocene Reviewed, Animated — John's attention had become fractured and his world loud, but putting himself into the reviews, as Sarah suggested, he was for the first time in years trying to pay attention to what he pays attention to. — 00:11:45
  • 2021-06-04 · Is Twitter Redeemable? — Hank: A majority of Hank believes that is possible for the internet, but no piece of him understands how we'll get there, which is uncomfortable. — 00:03:45
  • 2021-06-29 · Sneezing is not normal. — John: In our attention economy, where capturing attention is itself valuable, John says 'I never sneeze' captures more attention than being a good doctor. — 00:02:02
  • 2021-06-29 · Sneezing is not normal. — John says there is value in saying the stupidest possible things in the loudest possible way, which is not a good way to organize an attention economy. — 00:02:30
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — Hank loves the internet and still believes in its promise, though it is more delayed than he assumed, and thinks we should keep thinking about and fighting for it. — 00:03:13
  • 2021-07-27 · Savoring: The Sunset Series Returns — John: Slow time is not YouTube's strength: for years John has edited nearly every breath out of his videos, since in a hyper-distracted landscape a half-second pause sends viewers to other tabs; here he leaves a breath. — 00:01:27
  • 2021-08-17 · Who Owns Nerdfighteria? — The description adds that money is not the only currency online: attention is a valuable resource exchanged online, and by paying attention to Nerdfighteria viewers essentially make it exist. — video description
  • 2021-10-05 · Why the Heck am I on TikTok??? — Hank is interested in how communities behave and grow when given great tools; TikTok is a great tool, terrifying too, but still fascinating and fun. — 00:01:18
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank: A coalition of European politicians wrote to Facebook that its platform forces them into more extreme positions than they or their constituents want, to win the attention and engagement game. — 00:02:50
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank doesn't know if the world would be better without the many-to-many communication system, but knows his life would be very different without it. (unsure) — 00:20:50
  • 2021-10-12 · Fine, I'll take the bait. — John loves the internet and is grateful for it, but confesses he felt relieved that evening to be free from the deluge. — 00:03:24
  • 2021-10-22 · A Tool with No Blood on It — Hank says the internet is an amazing solution that has created many problems; he wanted it to be a tool with no blood on it, and it is not. — 00:02:55
  • 2021-12-07 · Reading Hank's Decade-Old Tweets — John: On Hank's 2011 tweet that communication is being revolutionized, John says it was exciting like going up a roller coaster; now it is like going down further than you went up. — 00:03:10

2022

  • 2022-04-15 · Are You Stuck in The Sad Gap — Hank says all of us who make and share content are pushed by our minds and an internet built to keep us on it to only add worries and never go deeper, so we are in the sad gap on many topics at once. — 00:02:27
  • 2022-05-13 · What Elon Musk Got Wrong About Twitter — Hank suggests the problem is not Twitter's free-speech dedication but that we invited a private company into the role of de facto town square, which Musk buying Twitter won't solve. (hedged) — 00:03:26
  • 2022-06-10 · My Embarrassing Dermatology Story — Hank says starting Crash Course as YouTubers mattered: on YouTube you compete by grabbing and holding attention, and by doing it inexpensively. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-06-17 · Are You Eating a Credit Card Every Week? — Hank says people want their sense of the world to rest on reality, but despite the systems we have built, normal biases and the fight for attention make sense-making a monster of a challenge. — 00:03:24
  • 2022-10-06 · The Pizzamas Magic Is Almost Over… — John: Asked whether social media's creation outweighs its harm, John says it doesn't matter because we can't get rid of it; he doesn't know, and would need to only if an off button existed. (unsure) — 00:02:19
  • 2022-10-14 · The Surprise Revelation of NerdfArters — Hank wishes Twitter's hashtags weren't constantly full of things that make him angry and sad, though sometimes they bring things that make him happy. — 00:03:20
  • 2022-10-18 · Terraverse Over Everything: Thoughts from London — John loves the internet, where he made wonderful friends and had deep, real experiences, but says it is a complement to the Terraverse, not a replacement for it. — 00:02:47
  • 2022-10-21 · This 'Math Test' Changed How I See Humanity — Hank says that, due to the nature of humanity and its algorithms, such questions are the ones we are most likely to see. — 00:02:55
  • 2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — The description calls 'engagement' one of those words that gets weirder the more you think about it. — video description
  • 2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — John: A nuanced take (foods on a spectrum, with fuzzy edges) is boring and demands no engagement, while 'is butt legs' does, and engagement is the fuel of the social internet. — 00:00:29
  • 2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — John: The real lesson: the way to get simple engagement (likes, views, comments) is not necessarily the way to get actual engagement, the volunteering, fundraising and lobbying that bring real change. — 00:02:55
  • 2022-12-09 · Things are Changing Very Fast — Hank's big concern: we have not yet got through the last revolutionary shift in human communication and are still figuring out how to live with disruptive tools given to us 10 or 20 years ago. — 00:01:56
  • 2022-12-23 · You Cannot Trust Yourself (Hank's End of the Year Worries) — Hank asks whether to just follow what interests him, as in the channel's first ten years, or keep wondering if algorithms hack his pro-social biology toward misinformation and loneliness; he needs both. — 00:02:16

2023

  • 2023-01-24 · Behind the Scenes of my TUMBLR MEME LORD ERA — John: Asked how this will end, John jokes it will end brilliantly, then admits it will end in catastrophe, but he can never resist the social internet. (playful) — 00:03:28
  • 2023-03-03 · The Law That Made the Internet — Hank says Section 230 is roughly what made the many-to-many internet possible, which is good and bad: it is both what we love and what we hate about the internet. — 00:01:20
  • 2023-04-21 · On TikTok Bans — Hank says we all watched these platforms being used to rend societies in different ways over the last few years. — 00:01:33
  • 2023-08-18 · The #1 Tip for People Who Use the Internet — Hank says people reply to shocking takes, which modern algorithms read as engagement and time on platform, so the less common, worse opinions are often intentionally promoted. — 00:01:40

2024

  • 2024-01-05 · I'm Scared of 2024...So Here's 3 Optimistic Thoughts — Hank blames the culture-war talk and nationalism on the disintegration of the media landscape, caused by platforms like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube maximizing time on platform, where moral outrage sticks best. — 00:01:32
  • 2024-01-05 · I'm Scared of 2024...So Here's 3 Optimistic Thoughts — Hank says for a while social isolation and fear of others, plus social media's outrage bait, led a fair number of people to think it was their job to suck. — 00:05:11
  • 2024-01-12 · How to Detect AI Images (and why it doesn't matter) — The description says platforms and creators succeed by giving content you won't be suspicious of, while ever more tools fool people's BS detectors. — video description
  • 2024-03-08 · I Believed These Four Lies — Hank says the incentives of the social internet's content recommendation systems make that hard for everyone, and he does not know what to do except try very hard. — 00:09:26
  • 2024-03-22 · The Internet Needs to Change — Hank says he sticks with algorithms because they are not designed to make him happy or to be what he wants, but to keep him on the website as long as possible, which he calls similar goals. — 00:02:28
  • 2024-03-22 · The Internet Needs to Change — Hank says keeping users on a site and making them happy are similar goals that diverge, eventually in really big ways. (hedged) — 00:02:51
  • 2024-04-12 · Feeling Like a Failure (During an Eclipse) — Hank worries about our collective decision to hand power to algorithms: then platforms, which often don't know how their algorithms work, decide, so it is no human's choice what exists. — 00:03:14
  • 2024-05-10 · Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg — Hank thinks local government is harder now because the temperature is hotter: people bring big existential fears, many made up by the internet, into local government. — 00:24:38
  • 2024-05-31 · The People I Hate Most in the World — Hank says a tweet or video tearing down people he dislikes would win many likes, views and shares, candy for a candy brain, plus clout in his in-group, and would feel really good. — 00:01:56
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says without cultural technologies we just fall down paths of least resistance, letting whatever app best retains our attention control our hours, days and minds. — 00:05:53
  • 2024-06-21 · I Was So Sad that I Did Comedy — Hank says stand-up got him out of scrolling TikTok, an emotional minefield and less rewarding than a 60- or 90-minute crafted piece that tells a story. — 00:02:55
  • 2024-06-25 · taking a break — John says that is how he feels about making stuff now, especially on Twitter or TikTok but also everywhere. — 00:01:56
  • 2024-07-19 · The Assassination Attempt and the Comfort of Certainty — Hank says we scroll because we hate not knowing, and Twitter's many voices give us the illusion that our stories are true and the future knowable. — 00:07:15
  • 2024-08-03 · I Love Hank. (Also I'm back.) — John calls it a blessing that amid the messy, at times dispiriting internet, Nerdfighteria happened. — 00:03:10
  • 2024-08-06 · What Helped Through Depression — John: Some online spaces John engages in are pretty toxic; swimming in them all day and wondering why he feels sick is like Olympians swimming in the Seine. — 00:02:26
  • 2024-08-07 · Dear Hank and John Livestream! — John says away from algorithms for a month he saw real life also has randomized rewards; the internet hijacks that biology to turn his attention into its capital. — 00:20:17
  • 2024-09-13 · My Governor is Weirder than Yours — Hank says that, making things online, he knows the easiest way to get views is the scariest video; without a sense of responsibility to society, the goal is just eyeballs. — 00:24:20
  • 2024-09-17 · My Consciousness. Their Capital. — John says remembering that these technologies exploit his biology to turn his consciousness into their capital is central to what he wants to hold on to as he returns to the internet. — 00:03:42
  • 2024-09-20 · Do I Regret TikTok? — Hank says attention is the stuff a life is made of, we only get so much, and in theory we control what we do with it. — 00:00:29
  • 2024-09-20 · Do I Regret TikTok? — Hank says TikTokers fought an arms race for attention that could not be won by raising quality, since there is not enough money to pay for it. — 00:03:24
  • 2024-09-20 · Do I Regret TikTok? — Hank says many of the best tools for getting attention under extreme competition are bad: fear, controversy, moral outrage, drama and feelings of superiority. — 00:03:24
  • 2024-09-20 · Do I Regret TikTok? — Hank: What Hank definitely regrets is helping put power into a place he cannot control, does not understand and does not think has been a net positive for society. — 00:05:21
  • 2024-09-25 · You have no chance to survive make your time. — John: In spite of it all, John loves the internet, where we have no chance to survive but still make our time. — 00:05:17
  • 2024-10-02 · What I learned from the weirdest day of my life — Hank thinks the time we spend at the mercy of brain-hijacking algorithms working with talented, ambitious humans is a huge problem, and he is spending more time imagining solutions. — 00:03:53
  • 2024-10-18 · My Ballot Made Me Angry — Hank: Without trust in Montana's election officials, Hank says, he might have posted that Montana puts only Democrats last; it might go viral, the correction wouldn't, and people would lose more faith in the system. (hypothetical) — 00:04:08
  • 2024-11-08 · These Maps are Lying (if you let them) — Hank says a worse graph crime, increasingly common now that being the media has spread to whoever gets the most attention, is that the data is wrong. — 00:00:47
  • 2024-11-22 · Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment — Hank says Luther had a deserving target, but now everything is a target: the internet devours trust in each other, institutions, expertise, tradition and democracy. — 00:23:42

2025

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John says social media and the fracturing of the news landscape are big forces pushing people away from civility, and he does not know how to combat that. — 00:11:42
  • 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John: After joining Twitter John came to believe that megaphones for everyone and the free exchange of information would inevitably bring a more just world, which proved a little naive. — 00:00:00
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank says social content platforms are great at steering curiosity, but sometimes toward fear, the most impossible problems or the hottest rifts in society. — 00:15:04
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John describes the algorithm-first, attention-monetizing, corporation-hosted social internet as extractive capitalism in which the thing extracted is consciousness itself. — 00:03:12
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John argues the social internet is not a net positive for humanity, even though it has greatly benefited some heavy users. — 00:03:21
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank: Information sellers compete to make it hyperpalatable, which often makes it worse for you: easy to consume only what you like, lacking what the brain needs for a useful model of the world. — 00:08:07
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank tells John the social internet isn't cigarettes but food: much is junk food or worse and making us sick, but much is nutritious, and we must learn to tell which. — 00:12:19
  • 2025-09-26 · I've Not Been Doing Well — Hank says the internet, the place where he lives, appears on balance to have been a bad idea, though there are obviously good parts. (hedged) — 00:06:16
  • 2025-10-06 · The Web is Going to Die — Hank questions what it means that these online places are built not on a city's land with a council and a mayor, but in a place that can be bought by a billionaire and used for his own goals. — 00:03:24
  • 2025-10-09 · I Like Being Alive — John thinks Hank's song is basically right that we need a slow internet movement or a change in online discourse: use the useful parts of the internet and reject the nuance-free, bad-faith parts. — 00:00:29
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says he and John both understand the internet as it exists to be doing more harm than good; he is not arguing it now, only saying he carries that belief around. — 00:01:46
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says the internet isn't going away and is an important place with important people, but it is being set up to rob us of our agency and attention, so we have to act in opposition. — 00:04:46
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says we must design systems that take our agency and attention back, so we are not focused only on the hottest, most divisive thing of the moment; many other problems deserve attention. — 00:05:16
  • 2025-10-17 · We Never Know What Anything Means — Hank says the recommendation algorithms of YouTube, TikTok, Threads and Twitter already erode trust without wanting to: told to keep people on websites, they made us hate each other more, fraying society. — 00:03:50
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says the internet is starting to change our attention spans; for many people reading books is harder than even five years ago. — 00:02:53
  • 2025-10-21 · Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective — John says hardcover books can now cost $27 or $30, while TikTok and Instagram are free unless you count the cost of your attention. — 00:03:52
  • 2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank says the brothers are YouTubers, and YouTubers figure out how to get attention. — 00:04:19
  • 2025-11-21 · I Wasn't Always Like This!! — Hank says the best way to help Complexly and the world is to indulge curiosity and not let algorithms, which serve fear, anxiety and outrage to keep us engaged, shape our choices. — 00:05:43
  • 2025-12-02 · The Meaning of Life with Hank and John — Hank says society is not set up for good attention: the smartest people have used the most powerful tools ever to control attention, so he doesn't especially blame himself but could decide better. — 00:05:57
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Hank has updated people on his life on X since 2008 and still posts and visits, though he knows it is bad for him and for the social order. (playful) — 00:04:52
  • 2025-12-16 · John Green's Brother — John got home last night from his final work trip of the year, speaking to scientists who study the implementation and dissemination of knowledge, a field he says is under threat from the social internet. (playful) — 00:03:24
  • 2025-12-19 · My Big 2026 Prediction is...Not Fun — Hank says Trump hires from both of his worlds: grievance-based attention farmers (RFK Jr., Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, Pete Hegseth) and billionaires (Linda McMahon, David Sacks, Elon Musk, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick). — 00:02:27

2026