I cannot agree with you about Twitter. It was always such a random, ego-driven, and quirky app.
What REALLY changed is the loss of a hell of a lot of bots.
The bots are what gave you the feeling of having a following, one that stroked your ego, lifted your spirits, and provided interesting tweets.
Twitter, like all social media, is filled with a diverse and strange collection of people who, for the short duration of a Tweet, have the attention of the crowd. You can rant and pontificate, and the number of your followers keeps growing.
I seldom find anyone on Twitter (Or any other social media, other than Facebook, where I am, years after high school, in contact with classmates. And a few long-lost family members, who I am delighted to have access to.)
Until AI is much farther along in terms of imitating human speech, writing, and interpersonal interactions, Substack seems to be a RELATIVELY low-bot place.
The more I read the instructions to answer C the more I felt myself resisting. Questioning authority? Disagreeable?
Non-conformist? Contrarian? Anti-authoritarian? I suppose I could think of other applicable descriptors.
I’ve had such great mileage out of the monkey joke over the years.
Great baby-on-the-bus story!
I cannot agree with you about Twitter. It was always such a random, ego-driven, and quirky app.
What REALLY changed is the loss of a hell of a lot of bots.
The bots are what gave you the feeling of having a following, one that stroked your ego, lifted your spirits, and provided interesting tweets.
Twitter, like all social media, is filled with a diverse and strange collection of people who, for the short duration of a Tweet, have the attention of the crowd. You can rant and pontificate, and the number of your followers keeps growing.
I seldom find anyone on Twitter (Or any other social media, other than Facebook, where I am, years after high school, in contact with classmates. And a few long-lost family members, who I am delighted to have access to.)
Until AI is much farther along in terms of imitating human speech, writing, and interpersonal interactions, Substack seems to be a RELATIVELY low-bot place.
I wish you’d bring people like Burkeman and Pizarro with you over to Bluesky.