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All statements about social media

92 statements about social media in 45 videos, by upload date.

Back to social media.

2016

2018

  • 2018-08-03 · How Do Adults Make Friends? — Hank writes that seeing so many seemingly exceptional people on social media makes us forget that people are big deals simply because they are people; remembering that would make adult friendships easier to make and keep. (hedged) — video description

2020

2021

  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — Hank says he and John are, like it or not, what some call social media influencers, a label he hates: like calling a journalist a newspaper subscription salesperson. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — The description says social media is just media now: we are all influencers, with a responsibility to use our creation and attention in ways that aren't destructive. — video description
  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — Hank's insight: the words social media influencer turn out to represent something much bigger and scarier than we thought. — 00:03:25
  • 2021-03-02 · What's Not in the Frame — In a channel comment John says our brains are not sophisticated enough to understand that unreliable images are unreliable; we may develop this ability over time, but it is a huge problem. (hedged) — creator comment
  • 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
  • 2021-03-02 · What's Not in the Frame — ask: John: Unsure whether it's possible to remember the frame, John calls the video a question: how to navigate the labyrinth of the social internet better, asking viewers with answers to tell him. — 00:03:20
  • 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
  • 2021-06-04 · Is Twitter Redeemable? — The description says Hank thinks there are better ways to use these platforms, but finding them will take a long time. — video description
  • 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
  • 2021-06-11 · My Greatest Tool Against Vaccine Misinformation — Hank says mockery is the way to get social media engagement, but the opposite of what helps if the goal is getting more people vaccinated. — 00:01:51
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — Hank sometimes worries a little about how central social media has become in his life; watching Bo Burnham's Inside, it doesn't all seem great. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — Hank says loneliness, isolation and mental health problems seem a little correlated with social media, if not caused by it. (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — The description says the moments when Hank feels he can't control himself on social media are when he most shouldn't use it; right now he feels relatively in control. — video description
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — Hank likes social media and is good at it, has done it a very long time, finds it fun, and on an average day is grateful for his job creating things on the internet. — 00:00:29
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — Hank says massive-scale many-to-many communication is brand new and did not exist when he was born; we are bad at it because we are new to it, and it causes disruption, division and suffering, but problems aren't fixed by ignoring them. — 00:03:13
  • 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
  • 2021-10-05 · Why the Heck am I on TikTok??? — Hank joined TikTok shortly before his second novel came out and used it to promote the book, unashamed of using his social media skill for work he thinks many people should read. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank says the time something is happening is the worst time to learn about it but when we most want to, the root of one destructive mechanism of social media on any platform. — 00:00:29
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank says politicians' incentive is to get elected, so they play the attention game; the social internet keeps would-be good public servants away and makes life miserable for every politician who is not a garbage human. — 00:03:12
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank used to think his belief that the social internet was as big a deal as the printing press was irrational; now he thinks it entirely rational, even common. — 00:04:44
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — ask: Hank says some thoughtful people need to engage seriously with social media, and viewers may be among them. — 00:05:47
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank says what we often call outrage is righteous superiority: feeling good by being better than others, seductive because you need not do anything to be good. — 00:08:55
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank: To respected people who say regulating social media means regulating society, Hank replies that Facebook already regulates society, with a narrow, short-term focus on ad money. — 00:19:04
  • 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
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank doesn't know how we will move forward from here, but knows we will. — 00:21:15

2022

  • 2022-04-15 · Are You Stuck in The Sad Gap — Hank says he could have blamed social media platforms much more, but that oversimplification would make it seem caused by evil rather than a problem to be solved. — 00:02:56
  • 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
  • 2022-10-06 · The Pizzamas Magic Is Almost Over… — Hank compares the printing press and newspapers, for which we created norms and laws; by learning from the past we can hopefully do it faster, as change is faster now. (hedged) — 00:02:48
  • 2022-10-21 · This 'Math Test' Changed How I See Humanity — Hank shows a very low-stakes math problem that changed the way he sees the social internet. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-11-11 · Elon Was Right — Hank recalls arguing months ago that Musk misunderstood content moderation, which, as Nilay Patel says, is a social platform's main product; he thinks he was right about that. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-11-11 · Elon Was Right — Hank names the worry: internet platforms hugely influence society, and people there whom we don't know and can't trust decide what is allowed, promoted and demoted, which is real and worrying. — 00:00:58
  • 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
  • 2022-12-09 · Things are Changing Very Fast — Hank says we are just realizing we live much of our lives in places that are not democracies, where we get no vote and leadership can change with whoever has the money to buy them. — 00:01:56

Also named in: It's My Fault Too

2023

  • 2023-03-10 · Is it Good or Bad that we Haven't Met Aliens? — Hank says the great filter could be AI, global warming, nuclear weapons or social media, maybe TikTok; we don't know. (unsure) — 00:01:59
  • 2023-04-07 · Getting One Million LinkedIn Followers — Hank says growing on a platform depends not on its age but on whether it is underused by current users, creatively fulfilling for him, and whether he adds value. — 00:00:29
  • 2023-04-07 · Getting One Million LinkedIn Followers — Hank says that, from his long time online, platforms stop being fun once popularity on them brings significant social status. — 00:02:19
  • 2023-04-21 · On TikTok Bans — The description says destroying a platform's cultures is a dramatic step, and hopes lawmakers are motivated by more than distaste for social media and looking tough on China. (hedged) — video description
  • 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
  • 2023-04-21 · On TikTok Bans — Hank says platforms have already created such rifts on their own for purely economic reasons, and he sees no reason they could not do it for political reasons if a government asked. — 00:02:14
  • 2023-07-14 · The Good News Video — Hank says that after John's video Nerdfighters went nuts on Reddit, Twitter and other social media, with letters and phone calls; he hopes everyone was polite. — 00:00:58
  • 2023-10-04 · A Messy and Unhinged Introduction to Geoengineering — Hank's most hopeful takeaway: climate scientists mostly think we don't need geoengineering yet; despite dire talk on social media, the problem still looks solvable without this possible last resort. — 00:12:14
  • 2023-12-08 · Did Natural Cancer Treatments Save My Life? — Hank says others moved his words into their social media feeds and, less politely, made content saying his decisions were bad and people with cancer should do otherwise. — 00:03:00

2024

2025

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff says the check broke down because the president punishes party members who step out of line, using social media to rally online supporters and primary challenges, cowing them. — 00:05:18
  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John says most people he talks to are scared, freaked out and overwhelmed by a social media fire hose, and frustrated with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. — 00:07:27
  • 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
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank says he is good at having an idea he believes in and just doing it, consequences be damned, which has served him well though it is not relaxing, on the shifting ground of online video and social media. (hedged) — 00:11:35
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John says the social internet's downsides, long discussed with Hank, are obvious to heavy users: radical polarization, hijacking and monetization, dehumanization of the other, denuanced discourse and misinformation. — 00:01:36
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John says the upsides are numerous: it feels good, at least short term, and builds community and connection, though almost always mediated by corporations seeking to profit from it. — 00:01:54
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John says the internet is not merely harmful: for many people, especially those most isolated by previous social orders, it is a godsend and a way to build community. — 00:02:41
  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John: So the metaphor does not hold: cigarettes have very little societal value, while the social internet has quite a lot. — 00:03:06
  • 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 summarizes John's idea: the social internet may be quite bad for people, and at some point it starts using you, as cigarettes hack humans into users. — 00:00:29
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank says the core of the social internet is not an addictive chemical but information, content, which he loves: books, music, art, cat videos, video essays, podcasts. — 00:02:06
  • 2025-06-27 · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information — Hank thinks people will eventually see such content not just as junk food but as manipulative and cringe, treating us as tools, though it will take a long time. — 00:12:19
  • 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 has the idea, just now, of deleting other social media from his phone for the two weeks of Pizzamas. (hedged) — 00:07:14
  • 2025-10-03 · Is It Time to Retire? — John: At 48, John never imagined in their 20s that they would still make videos in their late 40s, since social media platforms, let alone careers on them, didn't last that long. — 00:01:53
  • 2025-10-06 · The Web is Going to Die — Hank: Recalling John's video last week (week of 29 September 2025) on the channel as a placeless place and the short lives of social media platforms, Hank thought of the ghost towns of Vine, Myspace, Neopets, Diaryland, GeoCities, Google+, Digg and Friendster, and how common ghost towns now are. — 00:02:22
  • 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
  • 2025-10-06 · The Web is Going to Die — Hank says online infrastructure is easy to duplicate, but the pull of a place with a critical mass of people can be enough: as with towns, social media live and die by network effects. — 00:03:24
  • 2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says he and his friend Bria made a focus timer app that blocks social media and was the most popular app in America; he has enjoyed these collaborations. — 00:03:29
  • 2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — Hank does not think books are going anywhere: he thinks books will outlive every social media platform. — 00:05:47
  • 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

2026