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Is Twitter Redeemable?

2021-06-04 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook

Hank argues against abandoning Twitter: it heightens emotions and manufactures outrage, as a paywalled headline about the never-conceived showed, but it is too important a cultural force to leave; new media eventually become net goods, though he cannot see how the internet will.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John back on Twitter; the inaccurate 'John Green actor' topic

  • ★ Hank notes John, not very active on Twitter, is a little more active than he used to be, and welcomes him back. (playful) — 00:00:00 · John Green, Twitter
  • ★ Twitter offers a followable 'John Green actor' topic for John, an inaccurate one; Hank doesn't follow it, since following his brother as a topic is too much. (playful) — 00:00:09 · John Green, Twitter

00:00:29 — Should we abandon Twitter? Stressful and heightening but vital; changing norms; manufactured trending outrage

  • ★★ There is an active discussion about abandoning Twitter, which Hank understands: it brings him little joy, is stressful and heightens his and everyone's emotions. — 00:00:29 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank doesn't know that heightened emotions are helping right now; maybe they are, it's not clear. (unsure) — 00:00:45 · Twitter
  • ★★★ To those who say Twitter can't be fixed without leaving it, Hank answers that it doesn't work, because Twitter remains a tremendously important cultural force with or without him. — 00:00:56 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Unfortunately a place can be both apocalyptically bad and vital, necessary and unavoidable. — 00:01:05 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Knowing John may disagree, Hank thinks he can stay on Twitter and bring perspective on how to use the platform better. — 00:01:22 · Twitter, John Green
  • ★★ Twitter's norms have changed and will keep changing; maybe they will change in ways that make us better at this. (hedged) — 00:01:30 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank has seen no real evidence of improvement: daily trending topics are the hottest thing in the hottest light, and if nothing is there, someone manufactures it, even digging up something from four years ago. — 00:01:38 · Twitter

00:02:02 — Example: a paywalled headline about the never-conceived and the population idea the article was really about

  • ★★ Last week's (week of 24 May 2021) example: an article headline urging a thought for the billions who will never exist as world population growth slows, calling the never-conceived the ultimate forgotten ones. — 00:02:02
  • ★★ Clicked from Twitter the article is paywalled, though Googling it makes it readable, so Twitter users get only the headline and subhead. — 00:02:10 · Google, Twitter
  • ★★ Everyone had the same reaction: maybe the ultimate forgotten ones are the people who exist but are forgotten. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:31
  • ★★ The article is really about an almost 40-year-old idea: if people would rather be alive than dead, the highest utility is the largest population, which its creator called terrible and repugnant. — 00:02:38

00:02:58 — Manufactured discourse; new media eventually become net goods, but no path is visible for the internet

  • ★★ That idea, a good way of showing pure utilitarianism isn't perfect, is interesting, but it is not the idea in the headline or subhead. — 00:02:58
  • ★★★ The headline manufactured a discourse unlike the one the article intended, and it became a big hot thing on Twitter; such things are unsurprising because they work. — 00:03:05 · Twitter
  • ★★ Maybe such manufactured discourse will work less as we become more aware of it, which happens as we spend more time on the platforms. (hedged) — 00:03:18
  • ★★★ As new communication media arrive, such as radio, books or plays, we develop cultural structures to handle them without tearing society apart, and they end up net goods: nobody wants a world without books. — 00:03:25
  • ★★★ 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 · social media

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank has no good answer: everyone's experience of Twitter differs, and there are reasons to be pretty angry right now. (unsure) — video description · Twitter
  • ★★ The description says Hank thinks there are better ways to use these platforms, but finding them will take a long time. — video description · social media

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Twitter

Also: Google · moral outrage · paywall · repugnant conclusion · social media · utilitarianism · world population

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