Recommended Reading on How We Use Social Media, and How We Comment on It
It's a vortex, and it's inescapable.
For how much I DON’T want to participate in social media, and for how much I DO want to be immersed in art, and beauty, and philosophy, and startups, and business, and critical thinking, and and and … I find myself reading and writing about social media a lot. From a mental health perspective, from a neuroscience perspective, from a startup/founder/investor perspective, from an artist perspective, from simply a person on the Internet in 2024 perspective. I realized that my last two newsletters featured musings on the algorithm, on self awareness of one’s online self, on how people are using and performing on social media, and on digital archiving.
Friends and followers encourage me - constantly - to post more on social media. What is this - personal branding? As a female founder? (OH, so much more to say on that topic below…) This newsletter - on my own terms - is about as much as I can manage!
This month, I read two articles by Rebecca Solnit, one about Silicon Valley and one about commenting on social media - the latter a brilliantly witty how-to list published by LitHub. The first how-to:
1) Do not read the whole original post or what it links to, which will dilute the purity of your response and reduce your chances of rebuking the poster for not mentioning anything they might’ve mentioned/written a book on/devoted their life to. Listening/reading delays your reaction time, and as with other sports, speed is of the essence.
In The Verge, Toward a unified taxonomy of text-based social media use, Elizabeth Lopatto tells us something we all know, but it’s a perfect distillation of social media use:
The most important thing to know about social media is this: Most people don’t post…
The silent majority of every successful text-based social media site is lurkers. These are sane, normal people with sane, normal lives. They are well-balanced and have hobbies. One of those hobbies is visiting social media sites, where they are usually looking for either information or entertainment. They’re the audience.
Of the remaining minority, there are several classes of user: the influencer, the commenter, the reply guy, and the poster…
Generally speaking, posters generate Discourse; reply guys and commenters continue and refine it; finally, influencers and Brands capitalize on it. It is possible, though rare, for reply guys, commenters, and influencers to generate Discourse, but the point is: someone has to kick it off and usually that someone is the person with the least inhibitions.
This lead me to revisit a number of articles I read over the past four years about the double-standard that female founders face in building their business and fundraising (ok, c’mon, women sharing their story on the Internet - founder, investor, artist, writer). Female founders are expected to be The Face of their brand in a way that male founders are not. Revisit this piece from 2022 - The Dark Side of Female Founders’ Personal Brand Story by Ari Krzyzek.
Let’s talk about being an artist. Let’s talk about the business of art. In Everyone’s a sellout now by Rebecca Jennings, the subtitle of the articls asks - So you want to be an artist. Do you have to start a TikTok?
You’ve got to do it even though the people rewarded for “putting themselves out there” are most often the same people society already rewards. You’ve got to do it even though algorithms are biased against poor people, against people of color, against people who don’t conform to patriarchal societal norms. …
In a recent interview with the Guardian, the author Naomi Klein said the biggest change in the world since No Logo, her 1999 book on consumerism and inescapable branding, came out was that “neoliberalism has created so much precarity that the commodification of the self is now seen as the only route to any kind of economic security. Plus social media has given us the tools to market ourselves nonstop.”
This is not the conclusion of my thoughts on this ever-present topic - I’m sure they will go on for more and more of these Multitudinous Musings. I hope you find them interesting!
IN PRINT: So You Want to Start a Brewery? The Lagunitas Story by Tony Magee
The New Yorker Magazine (Issue: March 11, 2024) I highly recommend the piece this week, “Rupaul Doesn’t See How That’s Any of Your Business”
Listen: New Lost Ages is the newest album by Tyler Ramsey - loved discovering his solo work at Arlyn Studios during SXSW this year.
RECOMMENDED READING - Top of Mind
Agnes Callard’s Marriage of the Minds
The philosopher, who lives with her husband and her ex-husband, searches for what one human can be to another human. Rachel Aviv (Mar. 2023)
Toward a unified taxonomy of text-based social media use / Or how Threads’ Adam Mosseri needs to stop worrying and learn to love the bomb. Elizabeth Lopatto (Feb 2024)
Welcome back to the Unicorn Club, 10 years later Aileen Lee, Allegra Simon (Jan 2024)
There are more founders named Michael, David and Andrew than there are women CEOs of unicorns. At this rate, we won’t reach equal gender representation until 2063.
It’s challenging to track other aspects of identity like race or whether the person is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Myriad studies show diverse teams deliver better results, including in downturns, so improving diversity given the tougher times seems like a no-brainer.
Case in point: The elite public unicorn club has higher gender diversity at the top: 14% have female CEOs (two) and 21% have female co-founders (three).
In the Shadow of Silicon Valley Rebecca Solnit (Feb 2024)
“You can’t really be in favour of both democracy and billionaires, because democracy requires equal opportunity in order to participate, and extreme wealth gives its holders unfathomable advantages with little accountability. I’ve long believed that democracy depends in part on co-existing with strangers and people unlike you, on feeling that you have something in common with them. The internet has helped people withdraw from diverse communities and shared experiences to huddle in like-minded groups, including groups focused on hating those they see as unlike them, while encouraging the disinhibition of anonymity.”
Everyone’s a sellout now So you want to be an artist. Do you have to start a TikTok?
Rebecca Jennings (Feb 2024)
Why the Most Educated People in America Fall for Anti-Semitic Lies At Harvard and elsewhere, an old falsehood is capturing new minds. Dara Horn (Feb 2024)
Rebecca Solnit: How to Comment on Social Media
The entire measure of someone's commitment is how much they post about their commitment. Rebecca Solnit (Jan. 2024)
Researcher claims Harvard bowed to Meta: “I got pushed out after a $500 million donation from the Chan Zuckerberg initiative” Disinformation expert Joan Donovan wants an investigation into her dismissal, alleging undue donor influence on the university.
Jordi Perez Colomé (Jan 2024)
Social Media Posts: Misleading Windows to Our Personalities
Becka Bowyer (Jan 2024)
Essay: Minimalism, between art and life Notes for a talk, & TLFL paperback.
Kyle Chayka (Dec 2023)
Minimalist label of art: "That transformation was something like changing the stuff of life — mundane infrastructure, detritus — into the stuff of art. Minimalism was an act of recontextualization."
… "But a funny thing happened over the decades. The strategy of Minimalist art in the white cube was applied to other things. Fashion boutiques took it on, building empty stores that proclaimed the idea that their luxury bags and shoes were art, too. Then it was the vocabulary of residential architecture, with endless empty condos that mimicked the factory lofts that the original Minimalist artists lived in. Did that mean the human life inside the white-cube apartment was the art? The aesthetic of minimalism became separated from its original insight, which is that what we overlooked could be art, too. What was once radical became fetishized, a fossilized style. Which, of course, is always happening to the avant-garde."
… "Life is now a performance in the white cube — of the empty apartment, or of the Instagram photo frame or the TikTok video backdrop that makes use of a white wall’s visual clarity. When we fetishize everything as art, we don’t need that original art object quite as much."
A Professor Claimed to Be Native American. Did She Know She Wasn’t?
Elizabeth Hoover, who has taught at Brown and Berkeley, insists that she made an honest mistake. Her critics say she has been lying for more than a decade. Jay Caspian Kang (Feb. 2024)
Why work is so miserable in America
The Protestant work ethic hijacked America. It’s time for a new pro-worker ethos.
Sean Illing (Feb 2024)
NEWS / LONG-FORM JOURNALISM
The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave Beatriz Flamini liked to be alone so much that she decided to live underground—and pursue a world record. The experience was gruelling and surreal. D. T. Max (Jan 2024)
‘Dry January’ turns into ‘High January’ as Gen Z’s buyers’ strike on alcohol turns things green Almost 70% of Zoomers said they prefer cannabis to alcohol in one survey. Sasha Rogelberg (Feb 2024)
Go Brewing Could Be The Next Big Thing In Non-Alcoholic Beer
Hudson Lindenberger (Jan 2024)
Inside the multibillion-dollar alcohol industry’s battle for ‘sober curious’ Gen Z
There’s no doubt that people don’t go out for drinks like they used to … It doesn’t form part of what they need on a weekly basis. Eleanor Pringle (Feb 2024)
At 17, I Gave My Baby Up. I Never Expected The 2-Word Message My Child Would One Day Send Me.
What do you say to your child that isn’t legally your child when he reaches out to you in need of something you aren’t sure you’re allowed to give him? Joanna Good (Mar. 2024)
Dad Culture Has Nothing to Do With Parenting
Modern fathers are more involved in their children’s lives than ever. Jokes about “dad bods” and “dad rock” haven’t caught up to that reality. Saul Austerlitz (March 2024)
The First Year of AI College Ends in Ruin There’s an arms race on campus, and professors are losing. Ian Bogost (May 2023)
What Losing My Two Children Taught Me About Grief Never say “There are no words” to the grieving. Colin Campbell (Feb 2024)
It’s more than just Dry January—a ‘moderation movement’ is making winners of brewers in the $22-billion non-alcoholic beer market Prarthana Prakash (Feb 2024)
BUSINESS / STARTUPS / INVESTING
Lessons from a startup founder at the crossroads of failure Serial entrepreneur Andy Dunn on how to handle the stresses of running a business that's running out of time.
Andy Dunn (Jan. 2024)
Why Americans keep getting roped into multilevel marketing schemes
In her new book, ‘Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans,’ Jane Marie reveals how disillusioned workers play right into the hands of MLMs. Joe Berkowitz (Mar. 2024)
Tech Fanboys Have a New Hero
The head of Nvidia is becoming a legend in real time. Ross Andersen (March 2024)
Why Gen Z Is Ditching Dating Apps Myisha Battle (Feb 2024)
Are you a ‘super communicator’? 3 habits of people who are great at communicating
Anyone can learn to communicate more effectively—and it can have a profound impact on your quality of life and career trajectory. Stephanie Vozza (Feb 2024)
‘It doesn’t feel special’: is Soho House a victim of its own success? Chain of private members’ clubs under pressure as it reports full-year results this week, with some claiming rapid expansion has robbed it of its exclusivity. Rupert Neate (March 2024)
What is a SPIFF in Sales? Jeff Cagle (Jan. 2024)
Sam Bankman-Fried’s final con game Jeff John Roberts (Feb 2024)
4 Ways to Make Over $1 Million With Your Online Business Online stores and ecommerce are not easy ventures, but by following the right techniques, you can learn to scale your business and achieve profits. Mohamed Elhawary (Jan 2024)
How to Use SEO Like a Big Business — On a Small Business Budget The giants in your field likely have correspondingly huge online marketing budgets, but there are proven-effective and low-cost ways a modestly-sized business can still search-rank in the stratosphere. Jason Hennessey (Jan 2024)
How one tech company is doing marketing without cookies Sentry.io shares its story of what went right and wrong getting rid of cookies and how they're now doing marketing. Constantine von Hoffman (Jan 2024)
How to Decide How Much to Charge for Your Services Carl Angotti (Sept. 2019)
AI / WEB 3 / CRYPTO
EA CEO talks AI, says the usual stuff before the bong rip hits and he starts blabbing about a future where 3 billion people are creating EA's games with it
Joshua Wolens (March 24)
BRAIN / MIND / HEALTH
New psychology research indicates psychopathy is linked to social power and dating success in adverse environments Eric W. Dolan (March 2024)
Nothing Drains You Like Mixed Emotions Feeling conflicted can be even more distressing than feeling bad. Here’s how to manage it. Arthur C. Brooks (Jan 2023)
‘Collective mind’ bridges societal divides − psychology research explores how watching the same thing can bring people together Garriy Shteynberg (Jan. 2024)
Screen time during infancy can reshape children’s brains and emotional skills, study suggests Eric W. Dolan (Feb 2024)
Why Are We So Susceptible to Beauty Marketing? Valerie Monroe (Jan 2024)
ART / LITERATURE
On Book Hoarding and the Perilous Paradox of Clutter
Vanessa Ogle Remembers Growing Up Among... Stuff Vanessa Ogle (Jan. 2024)
The Mahabharata of Literary Festivals Forget glitchy microphones and cheap white wine. The Jaipur Literature Festival is the biggest and best of its kind in the world. Pico Iyer (Jan. 2024)
Frantz Fanon and the Birth of Decolonization A new biography of one of the 20th century's premier intellectuals. Vaughn Raspberry (Feb 2024)
‘There is joy, and there is rage’: the new generation of novelists writing about motherhood From the shock and awe of labour to domestic isolation, a wave of recent novels captures the transformative nature of being a mother Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (Jan 2024)
The Revolutionary Stranger: How Frantz Fanon Put Theory Into Practice Adam Shatz on the Life and Legacy of a Great Post-Colonialism Thinker Adam Shatz (Jan 2024)
FILM / SCIENCE / OTHER / PERSONAL INTEREST / RANDOM
2023’s queasiest, most discussable documentary is on Netflix now You are definitely not going to believe where Mister Organ starts, or where it winds up. Tasha Robinson (Feb 2024)
Kate Winslet Cried, Consulted a Neuroscientist, and Rehearsed Constantly to Prepare for ‘The Regime’ HBO's seriocomic limited series chronicles the cataclysmic decline of an unhinged authoritarian leader to an unnamed European country — and casts its Oscar-winning star in a harsh and hilarious new light. Kate Winslet talks to IndieWire about how it came together. Alison Foreman (Mar 2023)
The Quiet Cruelty of When Harry Met Sally
The classic rom-com invented the “high-maintenance” woman. Thirty years later, its reductive diagnosis lives on. Megan Garber (July 2019)
The best modern depiction of Sherlock Holmes? Elementary, my dear Watson
Move over Cumberbatch – Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock and Lucy Liu’s Watson saw the two timeless heroes grow into something bold and new. Paul F Verhoeven (Jan 2024)
You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists. Maxwell Zeff (Feb 2024)
First Person: The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger I never thought I was the kind of person to fall for a scam. Charlotte Cowles (Feb 2024)
The Carry-On-Baggage Bubble Is About to Pop Airplanes aren’t made for this much luggage Ian Bogost (Feb 2024)