Ryan George has a style of humor that really clicks with me. Love his Pitch Meeting series. I appreciate that (so far) he seems to concentrate mostly on the comedy. Although of late I've also learned to just not stalk or "look further" into people online just in case...
Did I post Shamus' quote to you before, Dale? Feel like I have but wasn't sure.
Ryan George has a style of humor that really clicks with me. Love his Pitch Meeting series. I appreciate that (so far) he seems to concentrate mostly on the comedy. Although of late I've also learned to just not stalk or "look further" into people online just in case...
ReplyDeleteDid I post Shamus' quote to you before, Dale? Feel like I have but wasn't sure.
Confirmation bias is when I see a news story on television about someone from the Purple Team who got caught in a scandal, I think of it as an anomaly. Then I see an Yellow caught in a scandal and I think “Man, that’s just how they are, always doing scandals and being corrupt. Dang Yellows.” Confirmation bias happens inside your head. It’s something you have to do to yourself.
Twitter is like owning a television that only shows me scandals by the Yellows, and acts of virtue by Purple. I no longer have to go to the trouble of fooling myself. We’ve invented software to automate and industrialize the process, and then added a scoring system so that the masses will constantly bring it fresh fuel. It’s a system of rules with the emergent property of creating a continuous flow of crowd-sourced propaganda. We’ve gameified tribal bigotry.
. . .
The problem is that abuse is built into the very mechanics of the system. It’s an emergent result of the mechanics of Twitter when combined with divisive topics. It’s not intended, but it’s there, and I don’t think you could fix it without tearing it all down and starting over with something very different.
When I point out how unhealthy it is to fight on Twitter, my colleagues say things like, “Well, we have to stand up against this injustice.” Or, “We can’t let THEIR ideas go unchallenged.” That sounds reasonable. We’re just fighting for the truth, and that’s a good thing, right?
And yeah, if you’re just looking to make your Twitter score go up, it is a good thing. But if you’re looking to persuade people to your position and gain a better understanding of theirs, it’s a massive failure. The result of every one of these exchanges is that the two sides hate each other even more. Nobody’s mind is changed. Nobody learns anything. Nothing is gained except that Twitter gets the traffic it’s hungry for.
Nate:
ReplyDeleteI agree about George. He's touched on politics, but living in Canada, he mostly leaves that to the locals.
I have not seen that Shamus quote, but it's gold. Thank you.