![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
a bouquet of links
+ 404 Media out here doing the Lord's work, in this case talking about how the tariffs are going to affect hobbying in the US through the lens of eBay. Trump Tariffs Cause Chaos on Ebay as Every Hobby Becomes Logistical Nightmare. NIGHTMARE! NIGHTMARE!
+ A Dubai Chocolate Theory of the Internet is so good. Ryan Broderick's position is that video on the internet has become primarily a vehicle to spread pornography--not pornography in the sense of sexual content (necessarily), but that video has gone from telling a story (even if it was 8 seconds long, like in a Vine) to people vicariously watching other people have sensory experiences--eating things, touching things, etc. Narrative is no longer necessary at all and in fact is at a disadvantage. TikTok, according to this theory, does not want to create culture, it just wants to get people to buy stuff. Quote: "If we can get everyone to make ads, then those ads can become culture. Instead of making culture to sell ads...it's the total inverse....TikTok is competing not with [other social media sites], it's competing with Amazon."
I found this theory very compelling from what I can tell of the TikTok/Reels-dominated internet that I do not participate in. I would be interested to learn if those of you who are more familiar with that side of the internet agree.
This episode also goes into detail about how influencers end up with various products, which is a process that I find really depressing and cynical--I am one of those people who thinks we should stop using "influencers" and go back to using "shills" but that's just me.
This theory even explains how Gen Z is defining "cool." Basically, this is the most interesting theory of the current moment of the internet that I have ever come across, and it's going to shape how I think about the most popular parts of the internet going forward.
+ My friends over at Invisible Histories have produced an online zine entitled How to Spot AI Images Online (you'll need to scroll down to access it). On the other hand, I appreciated this artist on Tumblr talking about how we shouldn't worry ourselves to death when we can't tell what is and what is not AI.
+ Peter Shamshiri is one of my favorite grumpy dudes on the internet, and I really enjoyed this Is Activist Vocabulary Hurting the Democrats because he reports on some very basic fact-checking of the type that we desperately need more of.
+ For those of you who need it, reactions to the death of James Dobson. (The last one is on Substack if you--understandably--want to avoid that site.)
+ This macro is my favorite reaction to the news about a certain person's engagement. I don't know if it's genuinely hilarious or if it's just so tailored to my individual interests (Judaism, musical theater, Judaism in musical theater) that I was just carried away, but I love it even though I care zero percent about said engagement.
+ A Dubai Chocolate Theory of the Internet is so good. Ryan Broderick's position is that video on the internet has become primarily a vehicle to spread pornography--not pornography in the sense of sexual content (necessarily), but that video has gone from telling a story (even if it was 8 seconds long, like in a Vine) to people vicariously watching other people have sensory experiences--eating things, touching things, etc. Narrative is no longer necessary at all and in fact is at a disadvantage. TikTok, according to this theory, does not want to create culture, it just wants to get people to buy stuff. Quote: "If we can get everyone to make ads, then those ads can become culture. Instead of making culture to sell ads...it's the total inverse....TikTok is competing not with [other social media sites], it's competing with Amazon."
I found this theory very compelling from what I can tell of the TikTok/Reels-dominated internet that I do not participate in. I would be interested to learn if those of you who are more familiar with that side of the internet agree.
This episode also goes into detail about how influencers end up with various products, which is a process that I find really depressing and cynical--I am one of those people who thinks we should stop using "influencers" and go back to using "shills" but that's just me.
This theory even explains how Gen Z is defining "cool." Basically, this is the most interesting theory of the current moment of the internet that I have ever come across, and it's going to shape how I think about the most popular parts of the internet going forward.
+ My friends over at Invisible Histories have produced an online zine entitled How to Spot AI Images Online (you'll need to scroll down to access it). On the other hand, I appreciated this artist on Tumblr talking about how we shouldn't worry ourselves to death when we can't tell what is and what is not AI.
+ Peter Shamshiri is one of my favorite grumpy dudes on the internet, and I really enjoyed this Is Activist Vocabulary Hurting the Democrats because he reports on some very basic fact-checking of the type that we desperately need more of.
+ For those of you who need it, reactions to the death of James Dobson. (The last one is on Substack if you--understandably--want to avoid that site.)
+ This macro is my favorite reaction to the news about a certain person's engagement. I don't know if it's genuinely hilarious or if it's just so tailored to my individual interests (Judaism, musical theater, Judaism in musical theater) that I was just carried away, but I love it even though I care zero percent about said engagement.
no subject
what happened with substack? I'm completely out of the loop on everything
no subject
Substack has a lot of Nazis using their platform, and they won't do anything about it.
no subject
no subject
However, the bit at the end about the conflicting need for coolness and attention makes me think it's all going to burn itself out. They surely can't keep this up for long.
Your activist vocab link is wrong.
no subject
only watch woodturning and volcanic eruptions for #asthetics
Cute! I love when people find their niche!
However, the bit at the end about the conflicting need for coolness and attention makes me think it's all going to burn itself out. They surely can't keep this up for long.
I don't ever want to be one of those people who judges younger generations, but also, the whole world seems to be conspiring to make them as neurotic as possible? And as someone who didn't need any help to become neurotic, I do indeed worry about them for this reason!
Thanks for the heads-up--I updated it!
no subject
Which isn't to say the Dubai Chocolate theory is wrong! But it seems to me people are still very interested in narrative. It's just that perhaps their patience/ability to focus has been worn down and so the narrative they're able to focus on is shorter and shorter ... I have a friend who used to binge kdramas and now watches micro-cdramas where an episode is 5 minutes and a whole season can be watched in 2 hours.
no subject
It's just that perhaps their patience/ability to focus has been worn down and so the narrative they're able to focus on is shorter and shorter ... I have a friend who used to binge kdramas and now watches micro-cdramas where an episode is 5 minutes and a whole season can be watched in 2 hours.
Wow. Yeah, I think you're probably right about this. As someone who still has a pretty long attention span, I can't imagine what the attention spans of the Kids These Days are right now. (And it's not their fault! But it's harrowing to think about!)
no subject
I'll follow up after I finish the Search Engine ep, but I do think that there really is something to the idea that Narrative is no longer necessary at all and in fact is at a disadvantage. TikTok, according to this theory, does not want to create culture, it just wants to get people to buy stuff. Something that I find so interesting about tiktok is the transparency about how so many things are an ad, combined with how viewers support their favorite creators making ads. Maybe it's bot-generated, but frequently responses to tiktoks with popular creators who make obvious ad content are things like, "Get that bag, girl!" or "I didn't even mind watching this even tho it's an ad bc ur always so funny." Capitalist hellscape, indeed.
no subject
Something that I find so interesting about tiktok is the transparency about how so many things are an ad, combined with how viewers support their favorite creators making ads. Maybe it's bot-generated, but frequently responses to tiktoks with popular creators who make obvious ad content are things like, "Get that bag, girl!" or "I didn't even mind watching this even tho it's an ad bc ur always so funny." Capitalist hellscape, indeed.
Oh that is SO interesting. Like I said, I don't use these platforms, so I have zero experience with it. But that sounds like it would drive me insane. I will be very interested in hearing what you think about the episode after you listen to it!
no subject
Searching it up on startpage, I found this American report from this year, which sort of summed up a lot of Broderick's points: Social media in China is tightly integrated with shopping and livestreaming is a major part of online sales. In general, Chinese social media is more integrated, commerce-driven, and regulated than Western counterparts which provide unique opportunities... I definitely intend to further research this because it is soo interesting.
no subject
I definitely intend to further research this because it is soo interesting.
Do feel free to share whatever you find out!
no subject
But there are still popular comediands doing very much narrative videos. I guess this is the scholar in me, but I'd love to see a study of the types of internet media consumption that younger people engage in. I remember unpacking videos were a thing even ten or maybe even fifteen years ago, but it was stuff like hobby collections or new make-up things (or am I just biased?), but now it's everything from fast fashion to thrift hauls to "stuff I found in the lost luggage piece that I bought at an auction", and every time it's mountains upon mountains of STUFF.
no subject
YES! This is not my internet! But it's an internet I am peripherally aware of, and it's always baffled me! And now I feel like I get it a little bit more than I used to!
but what I see my students consuming is largely hauls, drops, thrift store reels - and then fitness stuff, which mostly revolves around a lot of the same, just with a different focus. And the mukbangs, and the get-ready-with-mes, and all the Day in Life of A Very Rich Person style content, it's like the internet is swamped with them now.
This grosses me out so much.
But there are still popular comedians doing very much narrative videos.
Oh definitely! There's this whole aspect of the theory where he talks about the difference between what the internet is in the US (and most of the world) vs. China and how the particular dynamics of the Chinese internet are present in TikTok and that's why it's different than every other platform, etc. There's a lot of nuance in this theory that I couldn't outline in this post.
I think all the time about the mountains o' things (as Tracy Chapman sang so many years ago--it's scary how that song becomes more relevant with every year that passes). Just walking into a store these days overwhelms me because I can't help thinking about how much stuff everyone has. And I have a lot of stuff myself! But I also keep things for years and years and years, and so if I buy something, it's not disposable to me. Whereas I feel like most of our economy runs on the assumption that everything is disposable. The thing is not valued in itself: the value comes from either the dopamine hit of buying something or the showing off of it to other people. Which is a kind of approach I simply do not relate to.
no subject
The fine press community is insulated in some ways because books are almost universally exempt from tariffs. A lot of fine-press book production happens in the UK; even the US-based publishers are often having craft work done there. But the books can still come in without tariffs.
What can't come in is the material needed to make books: the books are exempt, paper is not. Which means it's the publishers that do print in the US that are going to end up hurting the most. I've already had one printer (with whom I had a book on preorder) send out an email mentioning "New tariffs more than doubled the price per sheet while the order was in process." (The US-based paper importer they purchase from are eating the cost. This is not long-term tenable.)
Puzzles, of course, are not tariff-exempt, and the US-based wood puzzle community is rapidly abandoning ship from importing Canadian and British puzzles. (And Chinese puzzles, I guess, but the communities I'm in have poo-pooed Chinese puzzles on quality grounds for years, so that's less under discussion.)
We've been through this before, sort of, because before Russian invaded Ukraine and got hit with sanctions, Russia was a huge source of wooden puzzle exports to the US. Not being able to import puzzles isn't the end of the world to the hobby community. There are a lot of US-based wooden puzzle manufacturers, there are options . . . except you know what doesn't get manufactured in the US? The kind of plywood used for wooden jigsaw puzzles. That all gets imported from Europe. So the price of those US-made puzzles is about to skyrocket, and a lot of US-based wooden jigsaw companies are probably going to end up going out of business.
It's ugly, and it all hurts US based companies so much. And if I can see this based on a few tiny microcosms, it's boggling beyond belief that the people running the US economy and trade policy can't.
no subject