Great short notes about a lot of important trends, including the link to erotic desensitization, which is not primarily a luxury belief as are so many bad beliefs.
Tho “eternal adolescence” seems more the true previously never satisfied desire to have both freedoms: to act (as adults) and yet not be responsible (as are kids). What so many want so much. The consumerism is related, but it’s more that rich folk get to purchase more of what they want and get used to such a buying happiness lifestyle, despite its frequent delusional aspects.
But is this place Default Friend or Default Wisdom? (Or both?)
On "taking online speech literally". You have flagged many of the mind-bending distortions inherent in mass media (exponentially turbo-charged by social media). Here are a couple of others:
* click-of-a-button digital media affords such a disproportionate voice to the one-track-minded, politico-activists, mouthy obsessives, narcissists and permanent malcontents. Well balanced people tend to be less media obsessed.
* in crude terms, the invention of the search engine was a massive boon for people with curiosity about the world beyond their direct experience. But then, after a few golden years, social media came along to reassert the groupthink tendency.
As someone who saw you for the first time on Tucker, I was drawn to your insight, intelligence, and realness. Following you here has been amazing. I've learned about so many things I knew nothing about, and it has truly been a fascinating journey. Keep doing what you're doing. You have a reader/listener for life here.
I swear your blog was made for me. Almost all of these topics are things I've noticed and/or been invested in and wondered if anyone else saw it the same way I do.
Without necessarily sharing your political affinities, I'm curious how this understanding of identity shapes your political positions. Also curious as to your takes on the psychological factors that go into fandoms/identities/etc before a person even hits the Internet.
I agree that the multiplier of media on fandom made the 2010s Internet and its teen generation, and credit to you for seeing that and explaining it. But my sense is that media has changed in the 2020s from discovery-driven to op-ed and commentary-driven, where commentary is a new fandom, but led by corporate and government interests which can bot-dominate traffic, rather than by the rest of us, with one big exception: Tiktok. The 2020s have also added a layer of celebrity promotion to what was there before. Ironically, the discovery of Tumblr was maybe the last gasp of discovery-driven media. Where will things go now? To me, the biggest change is a wide adoption of arbitrage strategies, led by meme-driven stocks and crypto, but also below that level, almost generalized. Arbitrage is when people who think received opinion is wrong try to profit from the gap between what they believe and what received opinion says. Gaming the internet, insincerely, that is, instead of actually defending what one believes. Hopefully, this (nihilistic) phase will pass too.
You’ve mentioned fandoms before, and clearly that word has a particular meaning for you. Is there a post where you play out exactly what you have in mind and what the specific mechanics are?
Great short notes about a lot of important trends, including the link to erotic desensitization, which is not primarily a luxury belief as are so many bad beliefs.
Tho “eternal adolescence” seems more the true previously never satisfied desire to have both freedoms: to act (as adults) and yet not be responsible (as are kids). What so many want so much. The consumerism is related, but it’s more that rich folk get to purchase more of what they want and get used to such a buying happiness lifestyle, despite its frequent delusional aspects.
But is this place Default Friend or Default Wisdom? (Or both?)
On "taking online speech literally". You have flagged many of the mind-bending distortions inherent in mass media (exponentially turbo-charged by social media). Here are a couple of others:
* click-of-a-button digital media affords such a disproportionate voice to the one-track-minded, politico-activists, mouthy obsessives, narcissists and permanent malcontents. Well balanced people tend to be less media obsessed.
* in crude terms, the invention of the search engine was a massive boon for people with curiosity about the world beyond their direct experience. But then, after a few golden years, social media came along to reassert the groupthink tendency.
I discussed these things in this piece......https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/non-binary-sibling-is-entertaining
Do you have a piece on the eternal adolescence idea?
Your thesis on emo is 🎯
As someone who saw you for the first time on Tucker, I was drawn to your insight, intelligence, and realness. Following you here has been amazing. I've learned about so many things I knew nothing about, and it has truly been a fascinating journey. Keep doing what you're doing. You have a reader/listener for life here.
Here's one.
Memes are ads, with the product obscured.
I swear your blog was made for me. Almost all of these topics are things I've noticed and/or been invested in and wondered if anyone else saw it the same way I do.
This is very good.
"The Internet is a place." It is a strange place. Our friends and family behave like celebrities, and celebrities behave like our friends.
Kath you are older than me, but wouldn't anime be the blueprint, not emo?
Without necessarily sharing your political affinities, I'm curious how this understanding of identity shapes your political positions. Also curious as to your takes on the psychological factors that go into fandoms/identities/etc before a person even hits the Internet.
I agree that the multiplier of media on fandom made the 2010s Internet and its teen generation, and credit to you for seeing that and explaining it. But my sense is that media has changed in the 2020s from discovery-driven to op-ed and commentary-driven, where commentary is a new fandom, but led by corporate and government interests which can bot-dominate traffic, rather than by the rest of us, with one big exception: Tiktok. The 2020s have also added a layer of celebrity promotion to what was there before. Ironically, the discovery of Tumblr was maybe the last gasp of discovery-driven media. Where will things go now? To me, the biggest change is a wide adoption of arbitrage strategies, led by meme-driven stocks and crypto, but also below that level, almost generalized. Arbitrage is when people who think received opinion is wrong try to profit from the gap between what they believe and what received opinion says. Gaming the internet, insincerely, that is, instead of actually defending what one believes. Hopefully, this (nihilistic) phase will pass too.
You’ve mentioned fandoms before, and clearly that word has a particular meaning for you. Is there a post where you play out exactly what you have in mind and what the specific mechanics are?
Great stuff, KD
I love this as a "living document" 🙏🏻✌️👍
I’m going to be thinking about this for a while
Brilliant and really useful to lay priors out so succinctly.