Is the internet, including social media, good for people?
Hank called the internet's effect very positive in 2015, and by 2025 judged it on balance a bad idea doing more harm than good, though with good parts. John loved the internet yet feared addiction to it in 2013, and in 2025 said the social internet is no net positive for humanity, while he still loves Nerdfighteria.
Axis: good for people ... harmful to people
Concept: attention economy
Positions by date: 146 records in 141 videos. shift and revise mean the position moved; tension — disagreement with the other speaker.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-04-07 | first on record | John worries that time on the internet, with Google as external memory, will erode our interest in and felt need for long-form narratives; he finds books harder to stick with himself. | Shmancy Hotel Room Is Shmancy 00:02:30 |
| 2012-01-31 | refine | John says a problem with the internet is that things go by so fast it's hard to really experience them, like scrolling Tumblr. | How It Felt 00:00:30 |
| 2012-07-10 | restate | John asks whether we have replaced intellectual engagement with superficial browsing and whether sustained attention is possible in a world full of distractions. | Feeling More Alive: Fahrenheit 451's The Hearth and the Salamander 00:03:39 |
| 2012-09-18 (said on 2012-09-16, implied) | restate | John: we don't listen to the voices on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook; we just use them for distraction. | Existential Airport Anxiety 00:01:30 |
| 2013-01-08 (said on 2013-01-05, implied) | refine | John worries he has become addicted to the internet and wants time away from it, yet says he loves it and its community has made his life richer and better. | Addicted to the Internet 00:00:43 |
| 2014-06-24 | restate | John says attention has become so fractured on the internet that YouTube videos have no room for silence, and that quiet now feels discomforting. | In Pursuit of Quiet 00:00:28 |
| 2015-10-06 | refine | John doesn't know whether everyone should take a social media hiatus; for him it had become a really unhealthy place despite a kind community. | Question Tuesday: My Social Media Hiatus, My Excellent German, and Books! 00:00:56 |
| 2016-11-09 | restate | John says we must get better at listening to and challenging each other constructively and generously, but worries the very architecture of the social internet might make that impossible. | My Post-Election Thoughts 00:01:29 |
| 2017-03-21 | restate | 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'. | My Information Diet 00:00:35 |
| 2017-03-21 | refine | 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. | My Information Diet 00:02:04 |
| 2017-06-06 | restate | 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. | My Favorite Subreddits: Joy, Wonder, Knowledge, and Birds with Arms 00:00:12 |
| 2017-09-12 | restate | 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. | How Will the World End? Why Even Get Out of Bed? It's Question Tuesday. 00:01:07 |
| 2017-12-19 | restate | John says participants reminded him the social internet is not only passive scrolling but hearing stories, becoming better informed and making deeper connections. | History Is Happening 00:01:53 |
| 2017-12-26 | restate | John says the social internet is not inherently good or bad, but right now it is bad for him. | LEAVE IT IN 2017 00:00:58 |
| 2017-12-26 | refine | 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. | LEAVE IT IN 2017 00:01:29 |
| 2018-01-09 | restate | John thinks that is true not only of Twitter but of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and so on. | Your Attention 00:00:28 |
| 2018-05-08 | restate | 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. | Old Man Yells at Cloud 00:01:52 |
| 2018-06-26 | restate | 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. | How's the Water? 00:01:59 |
| 2018-07-03 | restate | John also thinks YouTube is amazing, with more good stuff being uploaded than ever. | How Does This End? 00:01:37 |
| 2018-07-31 | restate | 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. | On Prepositions 00:02:57 |
| 2018-10-16 | restate | 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. | Life's Library 00:00:39 |
| 2018-10-23 | restate | 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. | Why Are Humans Suddenly Getting Better at Tetris? 00:03:11 |
| 2018-11-06 | restate | 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. | Taking a Year Off 00:01:56 |
| 2018-12-11 | restate | After drinking from the internet's fire hose for more than 25 years, John has begun to feel more of its negative side effects. | When the Internet Came Home 00:02:34 |
| 2019-01-08 | restate | 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. | I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going 00:02:45 |
| 2019-01-22 | restate | John says people making things online want algorithms to pick their work, so they are incentivized to tell whatever truth will capture attention. | Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle's Let It Snow 00:02:20 |
| 2019-02-19 | restate | 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. | Battling Apathy and Searching for Meaning on Question Tuesday 00:00:29 |
| 2019-11-07 | restate | 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. | I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. 00:02:15 |
| 2019-11-19 | restate | John says nuance is less likely than outrage to get 129,000 upvotes, and until that changes we will be swimming in misinformation. | Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit 00:03:48 |
| 2019-12-10 | restate | Quitting the social internet helped his loneliness, since he used those platforms unhealthily, in superficial connection that left him feeling deeply alone. | On Loneliness 00:03:09 |
| 2020-01-07 | restate | John also wants to continue not losing large swaths of his life scrolling through Twitter as dread washes over him. · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals | Endings · Beginnings 00:03:09 |
| 2020-05-12 | refine | 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. | We Could All Use a Little Change 00:01:27 |
| 2020-07-07 | restate | 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. | You're a Rock Star 00:02:10 |
| 2020-08-25 | restate | 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. | Somebody once told me… 00:01:27 |
| 2020-10-09 | restate | 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. | The Rax Guy 00:03:18 |
| 2020-10-13 (said on 2020-10-05, implied) | restate | 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. | Me from the Past: A Pizzamas Miracle 00:02:26 |
| 2021-01-12 | restate | 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. | My 2021 Vision Board 00:02:45 |
| 2021-03-02 | restate | 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. | What's Not in the Frame 00:01:27 |
| 2021-06-29 | restate | 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. | Sneezing is not normal. 00:02:30 |
| 2021-10-12 | restate | John loves the internet and is grateful for it, but confesses he felt relieved that evening to be free from the deluge. | Fine, I'll take the bait. 00:03:24 |
| 2021-12-07 | restate | 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. · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated | Reading Hank's Decade-Old Tweets 00:03:10 |
| 2022-10-06 | restate | 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. | The Pizzamas Magic Is Almost Over… 00:02:19 |
| 2022-10-18 | restate | 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. | Terraverse Over Everything: Thoughts from London 00:02:47 |
| 2022-10-25 | restate | 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. | Instantly Debateable 00:02:55 |
| 2024-06-25 | restate | John says that is how he feels about making stuff now, especially on Twitter or TikTok but also everywhere. | taking a break 00:01:56 |
| 2024-08-03 | restate | John calls it a blessing that amid the messy, at times dispiriting internet, Nerdfighteria happened. | I Love Hank. (Also I'm back.) 00:03:10 |
| 2024-08-06 | restate | 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. | What Helped Through Depression 00:02:26 |
| 2024-08-07 | restate | 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. | Dear Hank and John Livestream! 00:20:17 |
| 2024-09-17 | restate | 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. | My Consciousness. Their Capital. 00:03:42 |
| 2024-09-25 | restate | In spite of it all, John loves the internet, where we have no chance to survive but still make our time. | You have no chance to survive make your time. 00:05:17 |
| 2025-04-15 | restate | 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. | Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? 00:11:42 |
| 2025-06-03 | restate | 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. | My Lies 00:00:00 |
| 2025-06-24 | restate | John argues the social internet is not a net positive for humanity, even though it has greatly benefited some heavy users. | Am I Cigarettes? 00:03:21 |
| 2025-10-09 | restate | 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. | I Like Being Alive 00:00:29 |
| 2025-10-21 | restate | John says the internet is starting to change our attention spans; for many people reading books is harder than even five years ago. | Is Book Publishing Dying? An Author's Perspective 00:02:53 |
| 2026-02-03 | restate | John says he doesn't know how to talk about this online because we are profoundly, unprecedentedly siloed in our information distribution systems, so we don't hear or really listen to each other. | Does the truth still matter? 00:00:29 |
| 2026-02-03 | refine | John says there is mounting evidence that the truth retains power; he often feels the social internet only reinforces worldviews, but is starting to think it's not that simple. | Does the truth still matter? 00:03:53 |
| 2026-02-14 | restate | Over a divisive poll between mushy peas and baked beans, John jokes that splitting people into camps is just what the Project for Awesome looks for, because the internet runs on division. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! 01:36:19 |
| 2026-02-15 | restate | John says YouTube is now larger and more complex, with an algorithm better at capturing and holding human attention as long as possible, the only thing it is trained to do, so the P4A now fights on a different front. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! 03:03:00 |
| 2026-05-26 | restate | John says saying so would have drawn fewer views and coin sales, which maybe shows a problem with an algorithmic internet that values only capturing and holding attention. | Hank Green Is a Fool 00:04:00 |
| 2026-06-02 | restate | Horrible images cease to shock with exposure, and with algorithms generally you need ever more upsetting, outrageous or horrifying content to feel anything, which the internet will inevitably provide. | The Instagramification of Human Experience 00:01:56 |
| 2026-07-07 | restate | John likes making videos: he doesn't really like the rest of the internet anymore, but still loves Nerdfighteria and wants to be here. | On the Death of the Author 00:05:22 |
| 2026-08-18 | restate | John says the landscape seems tailor-made for turning bad leaders into powerful ones: we have incentivized professional provocateurs while disincentivizing nuance and complexity. | My Nemeses 00:03:56 |
| 2026-09-08 | restate | John says it is very difficult to have these conversations meaningfully 280 characters at a time. | The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die 00:04:52 |
| 2026-09-15 | restate | John worries that as YouTube, like other platforms, centres on personalized algorithms, watching becomes lean-back and people participate less, through likes, comments or art made in response. | YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 00:03:24 |
| 2026-10-02 | restate | John finds it incredibly hard in his experience, because personalized algorithms are astonishingly good at capturing and holding his attention. | the most powerful attention-consuming tools in the history of the world 00:01:57 |
| 2026-10-08 | restate | Meeting so many nerdfighters on tour reminded John the internet is not merely bad; thinking it is fails to hold opposed truths, since the truth resists simplicity. | The Test of a First Rate Intelligence 00:04:23 |
| 2026-10-27 | restate | John says he is occasionally tempted to Salinger, and that readers of Hollywood, Ending will probably see he has a somewhat tense relationship with the attention economy. | Should I Salinger… 00:02:04 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) | first on record | Hank finds online self-definition on Twitter confusing and peculiar but grants it a purpose: interaction with people who value your ideas, a 'currency that's not money'. | Twitter After School Time 00:01:39 |
| 2008-04-30 (said on 2008-05-01, implied) | restate | Hank says YouTube and the internet let people communicate, participate and create instead of passively consuming media; watching together is not wasted time. | BLOOD! I'm a KILLER! 00:03:18 |
| 2009-09-15 | refine | Hank says he must occasionally spend days away from the technology that is his home, work and soapbox to understand people complexly. | Internetless in Maine 00:03:05 |
| 2011-11-18 | restate | Hank says the internet's explosion of creative content is good; technology forces change, but locking it down would wreck the only really good economic engine we have. | Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████ 00:02:58 |
| 2015-06-19 | restate | The description says the internet is a pretty great place and more good than bad occurs on and because of it. | 19 Ways to Not Suck on the Internet video description |
| 2015-07-17 | restate | Hank says the internet creates more connections, more cultural and creative diversity and much wider access to information and free tools, so it seems to him to have had a very positive effect. | Is YouTube Good for Humanity? 00:00:42 |
| 2015-07-24 | restate | Hank is proud of VidCon but mostly proud to be part of the cultural explosion that put power in the hands of the people who watch and make content. | From the Main Stage of VidCon! 00:02:42 |
| 2016-05-20 | restate | Hank worries that online scoring (likes, views, pins) may make people forget less quantifiable but more valuable things. | I AM A GOLDEN GOD 00:02:40 |
| 2016-07-22 | restate | Hank says the internet has become a less kind place; unpleasant as it is for an internet lover to admit, we seem to have entered an age of outrage. | Ending the Age of Outrage (at least in ourselves, if not in the world) 00:00:06 |
| 2016-12-30 | restate | Hank says the internet will have an unknowable effect on human culture, which he thinks will be huge and both positive and negative. | The Most Interesting Thing I've Ever Done 00:00:43 |
| 2017-04-28 | restate | 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. | Can You Trust Mainstream Media? 00:01:17 |
| 2017-05-10 | restate | 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. | Seeing Myself Through a Cat's Eyes 00:00:05 |
| 2017-05-12 | restate | 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. | Things That You Just Might Love 00:03:35 |
| 2017-07-21 | restate | 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. | On Condom Failure 00:03:41 |
| 2018-01-05 | restate | 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. | Making a Better YouTube 00:01:34 |
| 2018-01-26 | restate | One of those things is how the internet radicalizes us. | I Wrote a Book. I WROTE A BOOK. How did I do that? 00:02:39 |
| 2018-04-13 | restate | 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. | Who is in Control? 00:01:08 |
| 2018-06-01 | restate | One of Hank's favorite things about being alive now is that he can Google pretty much anything and it is there. | Destroying My Router with a Hammer (and etc.) 00:00:17 |
| 2018-11-07 | restate | Hank feels the pendulum may have swung too far, and he is now much more interested in innovating in physical experiences. | A New Thing? 00:00:29 |
| 2018-11-16 | restate | Hank adds that the 2018 internet has a less carefree vibe than the 2008 internet. | Doing This Makes Me Happy, but Maybe it Doesn't' Seem that Way? 00:02:10 |
| 2019-01-18 | restate | 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. | Should You Burn Dirty Fuel? 00:00:29 |
| 2019-03-08 | restate | Hank loves YouTube but it makes him uneasy too: being a platform without gatekeepers makes it interesting but also creates real problems. | Does "The Press" Hate YouTube? 00:02:39 |
| 2019-11-06 | restate | 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. | Can You Be a Good Person in 2019? 00:02:22 |
| 2019-12-27 | restate | 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. | Why I'm Worried about 2020 00:01:22 |
| 2020-03-13 | restate | 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. | The Anxious Scroll 00:01:08 |
| 2020-07-17 | restate | Abundance fractures society, leaving fewer shared touchstones, but gives people who had no access to such careers or to any influence some access. | So Much to See 00:03:27 |
| 2021-01-15 | restate | 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. | Influencers and Insurrectionists 00:02:26 |
| 2021-03-26 | restate | 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. | Why I'm Worried about 2021 00:02:55 |
| 2021-04-30 | restate | Hank says Twitter is dystopic: a room without walls where everyone must perform for everyone, with no space for careful, thoughtful, de-escalating conversation. | Are We the Baddies?? A Quick Look at a Discourse 00:00:00 |
| 2021-06-04 | restate | 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. | Is Twitter Redeemable? 00:03:45 |
| 2021-07-16 | restate | 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. | Should You Abandon Social Media? 00:03:13 |
| 2021-10-05 | restate | 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. | Why the Heck am I on TikTok??? 00:01:18 |
| 2021-10-07 | restate | 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. | We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong 00:20:50 |
| 2021-10-22 | restate | 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. | A Tool with No Blood on It 00:02:55 |
| 2022-04-15 | restate | 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. | Are You Stuck in The Sad Gap 00:02:27 |
| 2022-05-13 | restate | 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. | What Elon Musk Got Wrong About Twitter 00:03:26 |
| 2022-10-14 | restate | 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. | The Surprise Revelation of NerdfArters 00:03:20 |
| 2022-10-21 | restate | Hank says that, due to the nature of humanity and its algorithms, such questions are the ones we are most likely to see. | This 'Math Test' Changed How I See Humanity 00:02:55 |
| 2022-12-09 | restate | 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. | Things are Changing Very Fast 00:01:56 |
| 2022-12-23 | restate | 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. | You Cannot Trust Yourself (Hank's End of the Year Worries) 00:02:16 |
| 2023-03-03 | restate | 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. | The Law That Made the Internet 00:01:20 |
| 2023-04-21 | restate | Hank says we all watched these platforms being used to rend societies in different ways over the last few years. | On TikTok Bans 00:01:33 |
| 2023-08-18 | restate | 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. | The #1 Tip for People Who Use the Internet 00:01:40 |
| 2024-01-05 | restate | 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. | I'm Scared of 2024...So Here's 3 Optimistic Thoughts 00:01:32 |
| 2024-01-12 | restate | 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. | How to Detect AI Images (and why it doesn't matter) video description |
| 2024-03-08 | restate | 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. | I Believed These Four Lies 00:09:26 |
| 2024-03-22 | restate | 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. | The Internet Needs to Change 00:02:28 |
| 2024-04-12 | restate | 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. | Feeling Like a Failure (During an Eclipse) 00:03:14 |
| 2024-05-10 | restate | 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. | Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg 00:24:38 |
| 2024-05-31 | restate | 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. | The People I Hate Most in the World 00:01:56 |
| 2024-06-14 | restate | 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. | Some Reasons why People Suck 00:05:53 |
| 2024-06-21 | restate | 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. | I Was So Sad that I Did Comedy 00:02:55 |
| 2024-07-19 | restate | 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. | The Assassination Attempt and the Comfort of Certainty 00:07:15 |
| 2024-09-13 | restate | 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. | My Governor is Weirder than Yours 00:24:20 |
| 2024-09-20 | restate | 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. | Do I Regret TikTok? 00:05:21 |
| 2024-10-02 | restate | 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. | What I learned from the weirdest day of my life 00:03:53 |
| 2024-11-22 | restate | 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. | Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment 00:23:42 |
| 2025-06-06 | restate | Hank says social content platforms are great at steering curiosity, but sometimes toward fear, the most impossible problems or the hottest rifts in society. | The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech 00:15:04 |
| 2025-06-27 | tension | 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. | You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information 00:12:19 |
| 2025-09-26 | restate | Hank says the internet, the place where he lives, appears on balance to have been a bad idea, though there are obviously good parts. | I've Not Been Doing Well 00:06:16 |
| 2025-10-06 | restate | 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. | The Web is Going to Die 00:03:24 |
| 2025-10-10 | restate | 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. | Maybe This is My Problem 00:01:46 |
| 2025-10-17 | restate | 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. | We Never Know What Anything Means 00:03:50 |
| 2025-11-21 | restate | 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. | I Wasn't Always Like This!! 00:05:43 |
| 2025-12-02 | restate | 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. | The Meaning of Life with Hank and John 00:05:57 |
| 2026-01-02 | restate | Hank says he no longer doubts that this world of hyperpalatable information is hurting us individually and as a society. | I Got a New Disease and I Kinda Liked It. 00:05:19 |
| 2026-01-09 | restate | Hank would have guessed that a global network making it as easy to talk to someone in Nepal as to a neighbour would make the world more connected and empathetic; it has had on average the opposite effect. | There is Only One Source of Value 00:00:58 |
| 2026-01-23 | restate | Hank says much online content is about capturing attention rather than representing reality, so it is easy to carry mechanistic, probabilistic accidents of history as if they reflected reality. | Two Unrelated Destroyers of Trust 00:03:27 |
| 2026-01-30 | restate | Hank says content platforms are bad, and we understand more and more why, and their negative effects on the world. | Has Anyone Ever Accidentally Seen me Naked (Question Tuesday on a Friday) 00:03:54 |
| 2026-02-04 | restate | Hank says finding information has never been easy but knowing what to trust has never been harder: everything is louder, algorithms sort us into bubbles, guardrails are thin. | We Just Sold Our Company for $0 00:02:52 |
| 2026-02-14 | refine | Hank thinks we are misunderstanding who is in charge of our minds. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! 02:32:55 |
| 2026-02-15 | refine | Hank says sometimes you want to explore a thought in public but do not, because public is a bad place to explore right now. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! 03:45:52 |
| 2026-03-06 | restate | Hank says real creativity is harshly constrained by the ruthlessness of the current information environment. | How Do You Create When You Don't Feel Safe 00:04:35 |
| 2026-03-13 | restate | Hank says he has often felt he lives more online than in physical space, which he thinks is problematic in a number of ways. | Pain 00:00:59 |
| 2026-05-01 | restate | Hank calls it one of the most interesting and important things about living now: these algorithms do not amplify our wisdom. | Despair is Not Wisdom 00:04:42 |
| 2026-06-05 | restate | Hank says the internet wants you to see the view as a metric, not a person; but views and creators are people, even if it feels like technology. | The Things We Don't Discuss 00:04:28 |
| 2026-10-07 | restate | Hank says it is great to know people are still doing cool, weird things on the World Wide Web. | The 5 Meanest Things We've Named a Species 00:08:04 |
| 2026-10-30 | restate | Hank says our attention is all we have: we gave a huge share of it to machine learning algorithms 10 years ago and live in an intensely different and, he thinks, worse world because of it. | The Last Normal Year 00:06:40 |
Background
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-07-27 | background | Hank: Tumblr is a weird but very fun place, but try not to spend your whole life there; go do other, outside things. (playful) | Tumblr: The Musical 00:03:38 |
| 2016-11-17 | background | John likens social media to an intense, fun romance burning at both ends that maybe should end but isn't serious; he has grown suspicious of his feed as a news source. (playful, hedged) | Decathlons, Pretension, and the Weirdest Animal I've Met: It's Question Thursday 00:02:44 |
| 2019-09-27 | background | 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) | Crisis 00:02:05 |
| 2019-11-29 | background | 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) | My Most Controversial Opinion 00:02:36 |
| 2023-01-24 | background | 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) | Behind the Scenes of my TUMBLR MEME LORD ERA 00:03:28 |
| 2024-10-18 | background | 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) | My Ballot Made Me Angry 00:04:08 |
| 2025-12-09 | background | 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) | Hank Green, from A to Z 00:04:52 |
| 2025-12-16 | background | 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) | John Green's Brother 00:03:24 |
| 2026-02-13 | background | In the 2027 bit, Hank contrasts 2026 social media with a 'resonant social media' that is much better because it is about utility rather than capturing attention. (playful) | Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! 03:57:54 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).