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- n.b.3 | this is the way the tweets end
n.b.3 | this is the way the tweets end
not with a bang, but with a tweeter
I experienced one of the strangest collective moments of my internet life this last week.
As new leadership continues to gut the staff at Twitter, last Thursday, for some reason, felt like a sort of critical mass. Outgoing employees, united with #LoveWhereYouWorked and saluting emojis, were vocal about the reasons they were leaving--but also about their expectations for Twitter in the near-term.
Basically, not many are optimistic it will survive. Their concerns were headlined by the misguided monetization, the malicious (lack of) moderation, and--most of all--the collapsing infrastructure.
And last Thursday, it felt like one of those moments where an entire platform was on the same wavelength.
Tweets came in every second about where to go next, how to archive your Twitter data, and how much fun it was when we were all here. We were all performing in the band while the Titanic sank.
Twitter is still running at the moment, of course, but its trajectory has never looked worse. Amidst the Musk-criticism bannings, the explosion of hate speech, and the reinstatement of dangerous actors, there are likely worse decisions to come.
I'm currently looking for alternatives, but it is uniquely an internet-ian concept to watch an institution that changed the world be completely torpedoed by a billionaire on a whim.
NYU professor Scott Galloway may have said it best, but we'll have to wait and see.
Yeah, I think we’re seeing the unwinding not of a company, but the unwinding of a person.
And I believe it’s a larger trend as society has become wealthier, more educated, the reliance on a super being and church attendance goes down, but they still look for idols. Into that void have stepped technology leaders, because technology is the closest thing we have to magic. And, you know, our new Jesus Christ was Steve Jobs.
And now Elon Musk has taken on that mantle. And every ridiculously mean, nonsensical, irrational move he makes is somehow seen as chess, not checkers. We’re just not privy to his genius yet. I think this is an individual who has demonstrated a total lack of grace, has no guardrails around him, and is going to see his wealth probably cut in half. This is already the second-worst acquisition in history, just a week or two weeks after the close.
— n.b.
R E A D :
is this real life?
A group of researchers across the world have made progress recently on "decoding visual stimuli from brain recordings". Yes, I said that right.
Take a look at the image below for a more visual explanation. While we've been (roughly) able to do this for a while, the quality of the images created in this paper are incredible.
And good news! The researchers are quoted as saying, "For the first time, we show that non-invasive brain recordings can be used to decode images with similar performance as invasive measures."
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well, here's a backstory anyway
Grand Theft Auto V, originally released in 2013, still has a huge player base fueled by GTA Online. A recent trend however, is roleplay servers in GTA Online, in which players will take on the role of cop, gang member, citizen, etc., and act as those roles, voice input and all.
The "admission" requirements for these servers are high, though. So in stepped Arash Lahijani, a high school senior, who started a Fiver account to write backstories for GTA Online characters. He's now made more than $62,000 over the last year. Amazing.
It’s a virtual world, so if I write about a liquor store owner, that’s how he’ll appear in GTA, dealing with people coming in to buy alcohol. In my mind, I’m helping my clients see their character through major life events.
W A T C H :
nostalgia bomb
Found this really lovely YouTube account that is a collection of videos from the past. From early 2000's Toys R' Us to early 90's Blockbuster to watching the events of 9/11 in random places of business. Really an incredible archive that may make you feel some type of way.
Weird observation: if you go back far enough in the videos where smartphones aren't prevalent, notice how many people just stand in public places staring ahead, looking for something to interest them in the real world.
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colonizing every minute of your life
I've come around to Bo Burnham as actually being someone who is both extremely plugged in and very eloquent in explaining his thoughts. This video, in particular, has framed the debate around social media, the attention economy, and more in new words that I haven't considered.
The quote below is from another video, linked here, but is really interesting to me.
I don't think kids are bullied as much as they are ignored. Kids would love to be shoved in a locker or given a swirly. [...]It'd be so much easier than the sort of psychic torment they get from what they feel moment to moment, which is: if my life isn't viewed, I'm not real. If I'm not seen, I don't exist. [...]But what a strange choice to have to make at the end of the night, between all the information in the history of the world and the back of your eyelids. You know, infinity or oblivion.
Thank you again for reading.
— n.b.