We've all been stuck in the mire of social media for decades now, and it took me an unfeasibly long time to figure out that the act of blocking jerks was the way to go, and is, frankly, the only way to survive online.
There's just so much bad faith, and so much grift, and so much fucking stupidity. If you block enough people (and bots) that engage in this shit, and just never interact with them at all, life is a whole lot easier.
There's just so much bad faith, and so much grift, and so much fucking stupidity. If you block enough people (and bots) that engage in this shit, and just never interact with them at all, life is a whole lot easier.
And eventually - eventually! - the dumbshit algorithms that throw the stuff up in your face get the message, and will stop feeding it to you. It's never perfect, and sometimes I get some Nazi bollocks or anti-vaccine shit, but it's very definitely in the minority.
I also got an inordinate amount of enjoyment from going through the 'recommended for you' listings on YouTube and telling it exactly the kind of videos I didn't want, and while Youtube is still a horrible place that really needs to face some consequences for the genuine harm it has caused to the world, of all the media platforms, it got the message I was sending the fastest.
After blocking a few alt-right and blatantly hateful videos, it got the idea pretty quickly. The one thing it does struggle with is that I do have to keep telling it that even though I love a good video essay about my favourite movies, I never, ever want to watch long video essays pointing out all the boring nitpicks, because the system isn't smart enough to tell the difference between the good and bad movie takes.
Telling the world about the stuff you don't like is so fucking easy and lazy, I always appreciate people who get off their arse and tell me why something is great, and make a passionate and articulate argument for why something rules, and don't just point out the continuity flaws and sit back like they've clocked movie-watching or something.
After blocking a few alt-right and blatantly hateful videos, it got the idea pretty quickly. The one thing it does struggle with is that I do have to keep telling it that even though I love a good video essay about my favourite movies, I never, ever want to watch long video essays pointing out all the boring nitpicks, because the system isn't smart enough to tell the difference between the good and bad movie takes.
Telling the world about the stuff you don't like is so fucking easy and lazy, I always appreciate people who get off their arse and tell me why something is great, and make a passionate and articulate argument for why something rules, and don't just point out the continuity flaws and sit back like they've clocked movie-watching or something.
But the snark does sneak through, no matter how hard I try to keep it positive. They're all hot takes on movies, right? Even the best algorithm in the world can't sort that shit out.
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