Thank you for writing this post. I want to hear different voices even if I disagree with them. I can always use the mute/block buttons to filter out the noise. Wish Twitter would expand these features instead of rolling them back, Threads has been excellent on this front.
Great post. 2 more examples of Twitter providing me information that the legacy media either doesn’t or waits way too long:
- Trump’s first assasination attempt: I think we all remember the “Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at rally” CNN headline. It’s on Twitter that I first understood someone had tried to kill him and almost succeeded.
- Last week’s attacks on Jews in Amsterdam: the legacy media (AP and WaPo) didn’t provide any description of the attackers during the first 24 hours. Meanwhile, following Bill Ackman, it was clear who they were.
As I wrote this summer: "In a serious society, truth cannot be relative. It should be like gravity, a law that doesn’t change, even if it sometimes leads to bad breaks and falls.
A quote comes to mind from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man who suffered imprisonment and torture when Soviet Union lackeys morphed lies into truth:
We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.
If truth is Fort Sumter, it’s way past April 12, 1861.
I'm sorry, but I'm tired of this binary stuff. X is bad, Y is good.
The point of journalism is that it's people who are writing & investigating who have 'experience in their field'. I wouldn't let a stranger on the internet operate on me in a hospital. So why should I think they are able to be a good news reporter?
Of course there are problems with journalism websites, from the press barons who own them, to their individual political biases. But at their best, they have the resources to do longer-term investigations into malfeasance that people shouting on Twitter will never have.
Similarly, Twitter has some problems e.g. Bots, provocateurs, and bad takes. But it also can provide a wonderful platform for connecting people - particularly in more niche pursuits it offers an amazing opportunity to exchange information with specialists (once you've vetted them).
They both have their strengths and weaknesses, and we should do what we can to correct those weaknesses.
Anyway, I appreciate you're doing the takes & are open to discussing it - one of the problems with Twitter is that the short-form format seems to encourage binary views & reluctance to change views & see nuance.
This is a fair comment, I would hope everyone acts better and with more nuance and hope to see that presented. The 'tech bad' narrative is just getting old, and it's pretty much the majority of what I'm seeing from trad media. I wouldn't have written this if I felt the coverage was fair.
Fair enough. I think all media - analog AND digital - has always tilted towards the bad stuff - you don’t make money by saying everything’s going well! So we don’t hear so much about the amazing things tech does (as well as the bad).
Perhaps part of the problem is also the volume of media - we only have time to read a small amount of content generated, so we get different perspectives. The stuff I’ve read hasn’t been particularly anti-tech, but that may be because I don’t read enough media that I disagree with (which I think everyone should do so as to not get stuck in an echo chamber).
An interesting observation while talking to people with a deep distrust of traditional media is their decision to prioritize face to face interactions over being online. Everyone needs to “touch grass” as the kids say.
Young adults are as concerned as much about their parents' screen time as their parents are for them. Whether you are on Facebook, Reddit, X, Instagram or TikTok you may inevitably fall into a dark conspiratorial hole that will shape your perception of an intellectual straw man.
As chronically online I believe that we over index for the thoughts and opinions that we read online, even in long form. We believe them to be representative, but the sample size is not realistic. In the absence of amplification and shadow banning, some simply choose not to share their opinion online be it for personal or professional reasons.
The bottom line is that to get a better view of what is happening we need to go out into the world and talk TO people or at least find other avenues to listen to what people have to say in their own words.
It’s rich to end a flimsy traditional media (why do you call them trad, BTW, is that some sort of bro speak?) takedown piece with “We should be truth seeking, not trying to simply cancel people or websites we disagree with.” Apparently the irony is completely lost on you.
Can’t wait for our new trad media defense secretary Hegseth.
“We” is doing a lot of work here. The “trads” may be biased and left leaning, but at least they are not filling the bros with outright lies. It’s fascinating how emboldened you all are by a result that is going to very thin when all the votes are counted and has nothing to do with podcasts and everything to do with inflation and immigration.
Okay we're getting somewhere, look this post wasn't really about the election result - there has for sure been an ongoing war between the media and tech sector. I have worked in both for 20 years and witnessed the election as a catalyst for a lot of "delete your internet account" type posts. I actually did write on the election specifically in a post just before this if you'd like to comment on that. And I've used "trad" media, "trad-fi" even "trad ads" to describe a lot of analog things. Perfectly descriptive term vs digital. Appreciate the comments, as always.
Post a new story to your Substack and rebuke the points you disagree with. Bring blogging back I am pro everyone writing on their own sites once again as well as social, I've written on that before, too.
This is the new blog, the self-hosted domain was hacked beyond repair and I didn't wish to deal with it at the time, he isn't using it either any longer both went with new platforms and have many more subscribers on each. Substack does a good job and I don't have to think about a lot of things, it works way better for me this way, I just get to write. The old name is retired. Let it go, let it go :)
Thank you for writing this post. I want to hear different voices even if I disagree with them. I can always use the mute/block buttons to filter out the noise. Wish Twitter would expand these features instead of rolling them back, Threads has been excellent on this front.
🙏 I write for the people
Yes! “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Great post. 2 more examples of Twitter providing me information that the legacy media either doesn’t or waits way too long:
- Trump’s first assasination attempt: I think we all remember the “Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at rally” CNN headline. It’s on Twitter that I first understood someone had tried to kill him and almost succeeded.
- Last week’s attacks on Jews in Amsterdam: the legacy media (AP and WaPo) didn’t provide any description of the attackers during the first 24 hours. Meanwhile, following Bill Ackman, it was clear who they were.
100% - there is ongoing news I continue to see just shared there that's super important.
Well said. Could not agree more.
As I wrote this summer: "In a serious society, truth cannot be relative. It should be like gravity, a law that doesn’t change, even if it sometimes leads to bad breaks and falls.
A quote comes to mind from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man who suffered imprisonment and torture when Soviet Union lackeys morphed lies into truth:
We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.
If truth is Fort Sumter, it’s way past April 12, 1861.
We’ve surrendered and lost it."
From: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/truth-and-its-discontents
I'm sorry, but I'm tired of this binary stuff. X is bad, Y is good.
The point of journalism is that it's people who are writing & investigating who have 'experience in their field'. I wouldn't let a stranger on the internet operate on me in a hospital. So why should I think they are able to be a good news reporter?
Of course there are problems with journalism websites, from the press barons who own them, to their individual political biases. But at their best, they have the resources to do longer-term investigations into malfeasance that people shouting on Twitter will never have.
Similarly, Twitter has some problems e.g. Bots, provocateurs, and bad takes. But it also can provide a wonderful platform for connecting people - particularly in more niche pursuits it offers an amazing opportunity to exchange information with specialists (once you've vetted them).
They both have their strengths and weaknesses, and we should do what we can to correct those weaknesses.
Anyway, I appreciate you're doing the takes & are open to discussing it - one of the problems with Twitter is that the short-form format seems to encourage binary views & reluctance to change views & see nuance.
This is a fair comment, I would hope everyone acts better and with more nuance and hope to see that presented. The 'tech bad' narrative is just getting old, and it's pretty much the majority of what I'm seeing from trad media. I wouldn't have written this if I felt the coverage was fair.
Fair enough. I think all media - analog AND digital - has always tilted towards the bad stuff - you don’t make money by saying everything’s going well! So we don’t hear so much about the amazing things tech does (as well as the bad).
Perhaps part of the problem is also the volume of media - we only have time to read a small amount of content generated, so we get different perspectives. The stuff I’ve read hasn’t been particularly anti-tech, but that may be because I don’t read enough media that I disagree with (which I think everyone should do so as to not get stuck in an echo chamber).
An interesting observation while talking to people with a deep distrust of traditional media is their decision to prioritize face to face interactions over being online. Everyone needs to “touch grass” as the kids say.
Young adults are as concerned as much about their parents' screen time as their parents are for them. Whether you are on Facebook, Reddit, X, Instagram or TikTok you may inevitably fall into a dark conspiratorial hole that will shape your perception of an intellectual straw man.
As chronically online I believe that we over index for the thoughts and opinions that we read online, even in long form. We believe them to be representative, but the sample size is not realistic. In the absence of amplification and shadow banning, some simply choose not to share their opinion online be it for personal or professional reasons.
The bottom line is that to get a better view of what is happening we need to go out into the world and talk TO people or at least find other avenues to listen to what people have to say in their own words.
Trad media is dead. They just don’t know it yet.
they must evolve in the internet age, like every other sector - I believe they will
I’m less optimistic, but I hope you’re right.
It’s rich to end a flimsy traditional media (why do you call them trad, BTW, is that some sort of bro speak?) takedown piece with “We should be truth seeking, not trying to simply cancel people or websites we disagree with.” Apparently the irony is completely lost on you.
Can’t wait for our new trad media defense secretary Hegseth.
If they improve we wouldn't be writing stuff like this and the world would be better. We need a functional media
“We” is doing a lot of work here. The “trads” may be biased and left leaning, but at least they are not filling the bros with outright lies. It’s fascinating how emboldened you all are by a result that is going to very thin when all the votes are counted and has nothing to do with podcasts and everything to do with inflation and immigration.
Okay we're getting somewhere, look this post wasn't really about the election result - there has for sure been an ongoing war between the media and tech sector. I have worked in both for 20 years and witnessed the election as a catalyst for a lot of "delete your internet account" type posts. I actually did write on the election specifically in a post just before this if you'd like to comment on that. And I've used "trad" media, "trad-fi" even "trad ads" to describe a lot of analog things. Perfectly descriptive term vs digital. Appreciate the comments, as always.
Keep digging. What a bad take.
Delete your Twitter.
Post a new story to your Substack and rebuke the points you disagree with. Bring blogging back I am pro everyone writing on their own sites once again as well as social, I've written on that before, too.
You literally sold your site to Ed. Good work.
This is the new blog, the self-hosted domain was hacked beyond repair and I didn't wish to deal with it at the time, he isn't using it either any longer both went with new platforms and have many more subscribers on each. Substack does a good job and I don't have to think about a lot of things, it works way better for me this way, I just get to write. The old name is retired. Let it go, let it go :)