This video from @hankgreen.bsky.social is a great metaphor and description of what I think has happened to the Internet, and our overall "consumption" of information, no matter how nutritious or empty the calories of information we consume are. youtu.be/9euKCrTyMEc?... - ThreadSky

kieranmoolchan.bsky.social • 2 days ago

This video from @hankgreen.bsky.social is a great metaphor and description of what I think has happened to the Internet, and our overall "consumption" of information, no matter how nutritious or empty the calories of information we consume are.

https://youtu.be/9euKCrTyMEc?si=I2wifttXNPU1j_g2

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drvicfielding.bsky.social•1 day ago

I enjoyed that, thanks for sharing. Great educational resource too!

arguemedia.bsky.social•4 hours ago

Omg! This video was amazing. If you haven't read Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, you should. It is a history of these sorts of information regime changes. From writing to radio to television to social media. Also, this is kinda my whole deal. I'm working on a social media site called Argue.

arguemedia.bsky.social•4 hours ago

I think the main issue is the ad/data model. I'm trying to devise a site that costs users a few dollars a year and foregos all data collection, ad sales, and algorithm manipulation. What people like is what makes it to the top, and what you ask for is what you see.

arguemedia.bsky.social•4 hours ago

...but that basically means you can't have any investors. Because they would just end up returning you to the old money-making business paradigm. I almost wonder whether it would need to be not for profit and publicly owned by the users who could vote on leadership. But anyways that's my TED talk.

davetoms.bsky.social•1 day ago

This video reinforced my recently rediscovered Hope for humanity. Because we're bad at everything, at first. Playing guitar, dating, writing essays, having an overabundance of food, using a global communication network like the Internet... we're gonna make mistakes, suffer, learn... then be okay.

wildermuth.com•1 day ago

(1/2) The great belief in the Internet was to democratize information. There wasn't a gatekeeper like the opinion pages of your local rag. The reality is that this democratization of information has allowed believers in fringe ideas to find each other and amplify those ideas.

wildermuth.com•1 day ago

(2/2) It used to be that every neighborhood had the one weird resident who believed in nonsense. The Internet has empowered them to find each other and platform their ideas. It's the double edged sword of freedom of information.

toisse.bsky.social•1 day ago

A small good that can come of this is some of them might be able to find counter arguments and learn. If only things like Google didn't encourage a bubble of what we see based on what we already like for marketing purposes.

wildermuth.com•1 day ago

I think this has been an overall good - but we have to take the bad with it. Are we better off? Not sure. Giving everyone a voice doesn't mean giving everyone you agree with a voice.

dreamerofdays.bsky.social•1 day ago

I think the problem isn’t born of everyone getting to have a voice, but how our voices get amplified.

We like to imagine we’re in a post-gatekeeper world, and yet I think there’s a lie in it.

dreamerofdays.bsky.social•1 day ago

Traditional media organizations still exist, and are still responsible for a lot of the loudest voices you know.

New media organizations try to hide behind the curtain of “just providing the platform,” and yet they can tinker behind that curtain to promote or stifle voices as they like.

jacklint.bsky.social•1 day ago

The best point I thought was all these claims for teaching critical thinking or civics in high school are like the people who thought putting calories on packaging would cause people to make better choices about the food they eat. It might, but I don't read the info label when I want junk food.

dreamerofdays.bsky.social•1 day ago

Because character limits can unintentionally move us away from our intended meanings, a clarification question:

Did you mean this as an argument against teaching those things being the solution, or against teaching them at all?

jacklint.bsky.social•1 day ago

People seem to think that one or the other would be something of a cure all. I think both topics should be taught, but I don't think such classes would solve the problem. You can give people information but how they choose to use that information (or if they use it at all) will always be up to them.

dreamerofdays.bsky.social•1 day ago

I think the root as a desire for and expectation of a simple cure.

There is no one weird trick.

dreamerofdays.bsky.social•1 day ago

It’s going to be the combination of a lot of weird tricks— or rather, a lot of separate efforts and changes.

Fixating on one can help make progress towards it. So long as we remember we are and it is part of a larger whole, I think there’s value in that fixation.

the-physics-well.net•1 day ago

This video is like tasty broccoli

kieranmoolchan.bsky.social•1 day ago

Just a little bit of butter on it!

imaunicorn1.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's amazing that with the vastness of the internet, how little real information there is out there. Most of it is meaningless drivel and this will only get worse with AI.

kieranmoolchan.bsky.social•2 days ago

One of the things that I've found is that (as someone who used to make "hyper-palatable" content designed for people to enjoy first and learn from after), is that, like Hank says, knowing something is bad for me is not enough.

But knowing WHO wants it to be bad for me, and WHY, can really help!

jamesmorris24.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yes, that can boost intrinsic motivation. But in terms of affecting behaviour change, fairly limited if the environment is unaltered

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