We have all been there. You are in a comment section or a group chat. Someone says something that isn’t just wrong—it’s fundamentally confused. Maybe they think an AI chatbot is a conscious person because it said "I'm sad." Maybe they think they understand war because they play Call of Duty. Maybe they think running … Continue reading Why You Can’t Win That Internet Argument (And Shouldn’t Try)
Tag: moderation
Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens
"Abstract Low-quality and misleading information online can hijack people’s attention, often by evoking curiosity, outrage, or anger. Resisting certain types of information and actors online requires people to adopt new mental habits that help them avoid being tempted by attention-grabbing and potentially harmful content. We argue that digital information literacy must include the competence of critical … Continue reading Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens
Troll Taxonomies
"The internet doesn’t turn people into assholes so much as it acts as a massive megaphone for existing ones, according to work by researchers at Aarhus University.-Tom McCay, "Online Trolls Actually Just Assholes All the Time, Study Finds." Gizmodo. August 27, 2021. I think there is a troll gravity online, where the megaphones of a … Continue reading Troll Taxonomies
Message Board Rot
"This ties into something I’m extremely interested in that I like to call “message board rot”. I like looking for signs that social networks are dying or atrophying. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always found it fascinating that one day Myspace was the biggest thing in my social life and then one day it … Continue reading Message Board Rot
Political Parties are the Sam’s Club and Costco of Opinions
"The defining quality of an ideologue, whether on the left or the right, is to acquire one's opinions in bulk."-:Paul Graham, "The Two Kinds of Moderate." PaulGraham.com. December 2019.
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