The paragraph (below) sums up the predicament of the post-social world: there is hardly any difference in information, misinformation, and disinformation anymore. You have to spend more energy and burn more neurons to distinguish what is real and what matters. You are better off paying no attention. And yet, there seems to be no escaping!
Kanye is a public figure, making news 24/7.
Kind of like Elon Musk. Like this guy can solve the problems in Ukraine, like he knows more about the situation than Zelensky, like Ukraine should just accept that Crimea is now part of Russia, even though Russia stole it after the 2014 Olympics. There are people who can’t get over what the state did to them a hundred years ago, but Ukrainians should just get over it. And how the hell would Elon even know? It’s a full-time job keeping up on the world situation, and this guy already has two jobs, and he’s angling for a third. The veneration of the rich makes me insane.
Bob Lefsetz
Even though I have not paid any attention to Kanye or whatever he has to say, he somehow finds his way into my information diet. Same goes for Elon. Or every other tech bro who wants to ride his coattails and has an asinine and ill-informed opinion on geopolitics. The problem of now is that for some odd reason everyone equates having money for being smart about everything.
I have muted all such conversations and punditry on Twitter and other social media. Like corn syrup that has become the scourge of modern life, this mal-information finds its way into our brains.
And a lot has to do with media — or the always on media ecosystem. Kanye, Elon, former president — they are all honey pots for attention. In a rare bit of media honesty, The Washington Post notes:
We expect more from famous people — for absolutely no good reason. And then we feast on schadenfreude when they muck things up. And their screw ups take on outsize proportion because we’ve convinced ourselves that celebrity is gold.
Robin Givhan
Whatever they say, no matter how shocking, or crazy, is worth attention of media organizations who ultimately have to feed the internet monster. They do these to get people to read or watch them. The attention seekers how how to get media establishment to amplify their messages. And in doing so, they make monsters out of minnows. Gayle King thirsting for an interview with Elon sums up the extent of the problem.
The python is eating its own tail!
Updated on October 12, 2022: I subscribe to The New Atlantis. They published an article on the changing media landscape. It is provocative and well-reasoned, and worth a read. The headline is a tad too much for my taste. It does, however, touch on the point I was trying to make — media helps create the monsters it eventually comes to hate.
October 11, 2022. San Francisco