I remain skeptical of Musk's ability to make Twitter into anything good without significantly altering how the platform works- if it's all the same algorithmically-driven downward spiral, if it's still funded primarily with ad dollars, what's the upside? How will Musk having total control signal a potential sea-change in twitter or socia…
I remain skeptical of Musk's ability to make Twitter into anything good without significantly altering how the platform works- if it's all the same algorithmically-driven downward spiral, if it's still funded primarily with ad dollars, what's the upside? How will Musk having total control signal a potential sea-change in twitter or social media operation? Some of his proposed ideas, as reported when he originally said he'd buy it, sounded pretty agreeable to me, but saying you want to do something and then doing it- especially when real money is on the line, if the reporting about Twitter's operating costs, profitability, debts, and how much cash Musk is going to have to shell out is true- are two very different things. But until that broader change happens, or looks like its' on a horizon somewhere, I don't think social media of any kind is actually a 'town square'- it's a worse iteration on the ad-dollars driven news and information channels we had before, now with the added benefit of siloing and the accelerated hollowing out of media and culture [/s]! Idk, I just don't believe the force of Elon Musk's personality is enough to undercut the inherently reality-bending nature of social media or, like, the internet as a whole (See: All of Dan Carlin's points about who comments on news stories, "garbage in/garbage out"). But let the bird be free, I guess! Anyway, I'm gonna go relisten to Bari's interview with Jaron Lanier- it's probably the one internet-related thing that makes my cold dead heart feel anything anymore.
I remain skeptical of Musk's ability to make Twitter into anything good without significantly altering how the platform works- if it's all the same algorithmically-driven downward spiral, if it's still funded primarily with ad dollars, what's the upside? How will Musk having total control signal a potential sea-change in twitter or social media operation? Some of his proposed ideas, as reported when he originally said he'd buy it, sounded pretty agreeable to me, but saying you want to do something and then doing it- especially when real money is on the line, if the reporting about Twitter's operating costs, profitability, debts, and how much cash Musk is going to have to shell out is true- are two very different things. But until that broader change happens, or looks like its' on a horizon somewhere, I don't think social media of any kind is actually a 'town square'- it's a worse iteration on the ad-dollars driven news and information channels we had before, now with the added benefit of siloing and the accelerated hollowing out of media and culture [/s]! Idk, I just don't believe the force of Elon Musk's personality is enough to undercut the inherently reality-bending nature of social media or, like, the internet as a whole (See: All of Dan Carlin's points about who comments on news stories, "garbage in/garbage out"). But let the bird be free, I guess! Anyway, I'm gonna go relisten to Bari's interview with Jaron Lanier- it's probably the one internet-related thing that makes my cold dead heart feel anything anymore.