TMD: “America’s Catastrophic Learning Loss”
By Declan Garvey and Esther Eaton
MG musings, just as a possible conversation starter, not at all binding:
Why do so many comment sections fail? Or, why do so many of them become toxic, with commenters attacking each other in the meanest fashion, to the point where many find them inhospitable? Is there an obvious tipping point?
The techno-libertarian promise of the open internet in its earliest days was that users would have maximum freedom, and users with good intentions would somehow drive out the ones who were, let us say, less friendly. Jon Ronson says the social pathologies of the internet were obvious even before the world-wide web came into being.
I’ve got no particular conclusions on this topic, but a whole bunch of conjectures as to what it says about human nature and our species’s social interactions. Any thoughts?
NB: Our hearts go out to Jonah and his family over the loss of his mother. If anyone has anything to say about it, feel free. It seemed a bit heavy as a potential conversation starter, since so much of grief is simply beyond words.
Aropos of nothing, I've been going through my usual exercise of closing some tabs I have open for articles and comments that are getting to be several days old now. And on one of them, I happened to notice a couple of trollish regulars going back and forth with each other. That is a good way for them to stay occupied and not bothering the rest of us. I hope it continues.
Morning Everyone
I am really sad for Jonah
Aylene gave a good explanation for why comment sections are what they are.
I was going to comment this morning even before seeing your question, that I was reading some of Nick's newsletters ( I am so behind, not just on the Dispatch but all the newsletters and media things I subscribe to I am like back to the end of last week...sigh...lol)last night and I love his writing and his personality..., but not a big fan of some of his fans who came here when he left HA.
I don't know who a lot of them are, and they don't seem very friendly, and a few are quite aggressive/belligerent/insulting, so I didn't really comment...plus, I am still having issues with the workings on the comment sections.
I really miss the back and forth, real time conversations we used to have and how we could mostly talk about differences without yelling at each other...plus, it feels less like a community now and more like just a comment board, most of the new people don't seem to be interested in how we used to do things, and some don't even like to debate apparently...