#720: Post-truth nihilism and media graves
#720: Post-truth nihilism and media graves
Plus: the rise (and fall?) of the Netflix library
Hi, hello!, and happy weekend. You’re reading the Saturday edition of Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends: a lovingly curated collection of brand-new writing on internet culture and technology, culled from the hundreds of RSS feeds I read each week for this ~express~ purpose.
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If you read anything this weekend
“I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is,” by Charlie Warzel for The Atlantic. Some of the hysteria over AI misinformation has struck me as misplaced: The real threat isn’t that people will fall for sophisticated fakery — it’s that they really don’t care what’s true and what’s fake. Charlie really nails that sense of post-truth nihilism in this essay on the many lies of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which have been … so fucking bleak to witness:
Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts.
But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants.
Renee DiResta also has a good Atlantic piece on this; and in Slate and 404, respectively, Scott Nover and Jason Koebler chronicle how screenshots of “texts” and AI slop spread hurricane misinformation.
“Taylor Lorenz’s Plan to Dance on Legacy Media’s Grave,” by Kyle Chayka for The New Yorker. Absolutely delighted to see Taylor Lorenz, a talented reporter and really kind person, chasing her indie media dream. At the same time, I do low-key resent how that narrative immediately veered into dumb us-versus-them shit like “dancing on media’s grave.” It is catastrophic for the entire information ecosystem if legacy media “dies” — see above!!! — and I say that as someone who gleefully fled the confines of that industry. I also think there’s a lot of conflation going on in this larger discussion around “journalists” and “creators” and what defines each, to say nothing of where/how they’re in conflict and why audiences may find one or the other more appealing. Anyway! I talked about this a little more on Creator Spotlight, and I hope to never speak of it again. In happier news, Taylor’s work for her new venture has been predictably excellent.
“How Everyone Got Lost in Netflix’s Endless Library,” by Willy Staley for The New York Times Magazine. I read this story shortly after learning that Netflix had just cancelled one of my favorite new shows: the weird, dark, whip-smart Kaos, a modern take on the Greek mythos. Kaos got great reviews from fans and critics, and it briefly cracked the Netflix top 10. But viewership dropped sharply from there, and the new economics of streaming require that original shows and movies pull masses of viewers.
That’s one of my main takeaways, at least, from this NYT piece, which traces the debt-fueled rise of Netflix and its vast catalog — and the forces that have shaped it since. Streaming was, at first, supposed to liberate creatives from the pressure of dumbing down their work for a single mass audience. But Netflix is no longer in the game of connecting niche audiences to niche prestige shows; instead, the tech giant now needs to keep a quarter-billion viewers watching for as long as possible. That means more so-called “mid TV.” More Perfect Couple and less Kaos. And more content in the library, period, even if we only ever watch a fraction of it all.
“Who Gets Shipped and Why?” by Ashley Cai, Florina Sutanto, Jan Diehm and Caitlyn Ralph for The Pudding. This astoundingly comprehensive analysis of contemporary fanfic, based on 11 years of data from Archive of Our Own, literally changed my entire understanding of/appreciation for fan fiction. “Shipping,” it argues — the practice of pairing real or fictional characters in steamy, made-up relationships — is less a kink, as such, and more a means for female fans to reclaim agency and authorship in genres and franchises that have long overlooked them.
“How ‘Divorce Him!’ Became the Internet’s De Facto Relationship Advice,” by Rebecca Jennings for Vox. Behold the deeply weird and interesting confluence of the whole AITA/personal narrative obsession and the growing — if contested! — political divide between men and women.
In case you missed it
The most-clicked link from last weekend’s edition was
on “the cobra effect.”
On Wednesday, I wrote about the convergence of two deeply shitty trends: the growing alpha masculinity of Silicon Valley’s leaders, and the plateauing share of women in tech.
Postscripts
AI wingmen. Hobby shopping. “Anti-influencer architecture.” The woman digitizing America’s records and Antarctica’s new postmaster. A collection of still-good internet forums. The YouTubers MAGA-pilling teenagers. The death of the link. The terror of toxic fans. Remember the metaverse???
Why Kamala went on “Call Her Daddy.” Why The Artist’s Way is trending this fall. “We invent things then we invent meaning, then we forget we invented anything at all.” Wikipedia’s war on AI junk. Boys can be Sephora tweens, too. Last but not least: “My selfies started tapering off sometime around 2020, and then a few months ago, I realized I’d barely photographed myself in over three years, and had largely stopped being photographed by other people, too.”
BELOW the paywall you’ll also find:
Unlocked links from the The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic
A librarian blog I am loving, though I’m not the target audience, and my current (low-lift/lowbrow) book and TV picks.
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards,
Caitlin
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