Instantly Debateable

2022-10-25 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Global development) · mode: Personal essay · tags: fundraising ask

Replying to Hank's video on dichotomies, John argues that 'instantly debatable' framing wins online engagement (his Liz Truss joke tweet versus news of Kissy Psychiatric Hospital's accreditation; his penny crusade), but simple engagement is not the actual engagement (volunteering, fundraising, lobbying) that brought child deaths from 11 million to under 5 million a year.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Reply to Hank: instantly debatable questions avoid nuance; engagement is the fuel of the social internet

★★ John loved Hank's video on how online discourse creates dichotomies placing us in opposing camps, like whether a hot dog is a sandwich or cereal a soup. — 00:00:00 · Hank Green
★★★ John calls such questions 'instantly debatable' and says they tend to avoid nuance and complexity. — 00:00:00 · instantly debatable

“instantly debatable”
★★ 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 · attention economy
★★ John says videos with higher engagement-to-view ratios on YouTube or TikTok are shown to more people, and the same is true on his Twitter. — 00:00:29 · YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, recommender system

00:00:58 — John's tweets: a Liz Truss joke versus Kissy's accreditation; dichotomous framing wins audiences

★★ John's joke tweet about the former UK Prime Minister got 20,000 likes and generated over 100 new followers. — 00:00:58 · Twitter
★★★ Kissy Psychiatric Hospital has just been accredited as a full teaching hospital, so for the first time in Sierra Leone's history physicians and nurses can train in psychiatry in-country. — 00:00:58 · Sierra Leone
★★ John's tweet about Kissy's accreditation got about 5% as many likes as the Liz Truss one and zero new followers. — 00:00:58
★★★ Everywhere John makes things online, work that lets people agree or disagree in a straightforward, dichotomous way gets a larger audience, even about news almost everyone welcomes. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — The penny crusade versus Kissy videos: simple engagement is not actual engagement

★★ The only way John has found to get much engagement on a widely agreed issue is to frame it as instantly debatable: obvious, and blocked only by evil, corrupt systems or people. — 00:01:56 · instantly debatable
★★ His most notable example is his long crusade against the US penny: he gets engagement from the idea that pennies are minted because Congress cares mostly about divisive, re-election issues. (hedged) — 00:01:56 · United States Congress
★★ That framing is much easier with small issues like pennies than with big ones like the multifactorial injustice behind impoverished healthcare and education systems. — 00:02:26
★★★ John argues that penny videos, despite lots of engagement and views, were less effective at making change ('pun intended') than far less-viewed Vlogbrothers videos about Kissy Psychiatric Hospital. — 00:02:26 · Vlogbrothers

00:02:55 — Anger at injustice is useful; child deaths fell through collective work: real engagement; sign-off

★★★ 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 · attention economy
★★★ John doesn't delegitimize fun with instantly debatable questions; even politically charged ones can usefully make us angry, because we should be pissed off about injustice. — 00:02:55 · instantly debatable
★★★ The year John graduated from high school, 11 million children under 5 died; this year (2022) fewer than 5 million will, which is still way too high. — 00:03:24 · child mortality
★★★ John says nothing was inevitable about that progress: it happened because activists, healthcare workers, governments and charities worked together in messy, hard work. — 00:03:24 · collective action
★★ John calls that real engagement, not stopping at mere despair. — 00:03:53

In the description and comments

★ The description calls 'engagement' one of those words that gets weirder the more you think about it. — video description · attention economy
★★ The description congratulates Kissy and PIH Sierra Leone and invites viewers to join thousands of monthly donors or give once at pih.org/hankandjohn. — video description · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone

Threads in this video

restate · Is the internet, including social media, good for people? — 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)
restate · Should the penny (and other low-value money) be abolished? — His most notable example is his long crusade against the US penny: he gets engagement from the idea that pennies are minted because Congress cares mostly about divisive, re-election issues. (00:01:56)
restate · Do big problems have simple solutions? — That framing is much easier with small issues like pennies than with big ones like the multifactorial injustice behind impoverished healthcare and education systems. (00:02:26)
restate · Is outrage useful? — John doesn't delegitimize fun with instantly debatable questions; even politically charged ones can usefully make us angry, because we should be pissed off about injustice. (00:02:55)
restate · Is human life getting better; is now the best time to be alive? — The year John graduated from high school, 11 million children under 5 died; this year (2022) fewer than 5 million will, which is still way too high. (00:03:24)
restate · Is history inevitable, or made by choices? — John says nothing was inevitable about that progress: it happened because activists, healthcare workers, governments and charities worked together in messy, hard work. (00:03:24)
reminder · John asks viewers to donate to Partners In Health at pih.org/hankandjohn (2019) — The description congratulates Kissy and PIH Sierra Leone and invites viewers to join thousands of monthly donors or give once at pih.org/hankandjohn. (video description)
restate · Do people achieve more together than as individuals? — John says nothing was inevitable about that progress: it happened because activists, healthcare workers, governments and charities worked together in messy, hard work. (00:03:24)

Mentioned

Central: attention economy · instantly debatable · Kissy Psychiatric Hospital

Also: People: Liz Truss

Organizations: TikTok · Twitter · United States Congress · YouTube

Concepts: child mortality · collective action · false dilemma · moral outrage

Places: Sierra Leone

Policies: Abolish the US penny

Only in the description or credits: Partners In Health

Also centred on Kissy Psychiatric Hospital: The Only Psychiatric Hospital in Sierra Leone

Replies to

continues · This 'Math Test' Changed How I See Humanity — “I loved your video last week about how, especially in online discourse, we often create dichotomies that place us into one of two opposing camps”

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