[sussexby]

Humanity needs constraint.

Beautiful art is created with constraint - here's a statue I carved purely out of one of the most difficult materials, marble.

The most significant speeches of our time are delivered once, not on repeat.

Even, on topic with the post, in my opinion Twitter's early attractiveness was the challenge of posting on a subject within the character limit constraint.

Our default state as a species is to find ways to survive. Constraint flexes our brains to develop innovative ways to reach a goal. Information about other people is a significant asset in survival because we're built to learn things from others and to use that knowledge to further out survival. Simply standing in my house and saying "oh wow" will make my kids run to me to ask what it is.

The current information age is tapping on all the systems we've evolved to survive in terms of information gathering, it's just that knowing that someone is eating a delicious meal in the city is not critical to survival - but once you know the information you can't unknow it leading to information overload. We're coaxed into feeling like we should care and we should know but it's a huge tax on the brain to deal with the complexity of the world.

"Could I interest you in everything all of the time." - Bo Burnham

[licebmi__at__]

I might agree with you with everything except twitter.

I feel strongly that twitter has been disastrous to a nuanced public discourse. The format is just shit for everything that is not a catchy slogan or an oversimplification.

[bluescrn]

While Twitter brings out the anger and abuse, I think Reddit is more insidious, with heavy-handed moderation by a tiny number of all-powerful activist-moderators, simply erasing entire points of view from existence, giving users a rather distored view of the world.

[whstl]

Reddit is much worse than that. Reddit is a shrine to consumerism. It's almost entirely about consuming and buying stuff. Be it expensive computers, headphones, computer games, guitar pedals, modular synths. Or maybe it's about over-consuming bad news from your favorite political bubble, or from your city, or country. But it's a website that makes almost every single community regurgitate the same jokes and memes non-stop to the point it could perhaps be replaced already by ChatGPT.

"Oh but thanks to Reddit I found my dream headphones and I'm finally as happy as I was before finding /r/headphones".

[JackMorgan]

I disagree, by filtering and subscribing carefully, I've learned a tremendous amount from Reddit. There's whole subreddits about history, art, literature, finance, programming, fitness, cooking, and economics. That being said, after awhile I've moved more and more to just reading books instead.

[whstl]

Those are called exceptions.

But on the other hand: even some communities that are seemingly fountains of knowledge, also thrive by having masses of addicted consumers. Sure, it's much better to be addicted to a valid and interesting subject than to something that's harmful. But it's still a form of addiction to spend an excessive amount of time on them, like some people do (yes I am aware not everyone does it).

[api]

You're not wrong but try creating a new account on Reddit and browsing the most popular stuff. It's exactly as the parent describes.

[slothtrop]

Looking at what makes it to r/all, I think it's mostly about tribal political hot air and cute pictures. And then asking the same questions over and over on askreddit.

You can't divorce hobbies from some level of consumerism, half of what you mentioned is related to music. I can't imagine that a high percentage of redditors are interested in modular synths or boutique headphones. I think you have a conclusion in search of evidence, because that's what you think of people.

Notwithstanding that having some interest in specialty products doesn't necessitate that one "over"consumes. Your level of consumption doesn't scale with your subreddit subscriptions.

I don't understand the recreational sneering of consumption by other consumers, but I think the problem we have now is a culture of passive consumption (tv, social media, this site) rather than biasing towards action. Action doesn't preclude purchases.

[dotnet00]

>It's almost entirely about consuming and buying stuff. Be it expensive computers, headphones, computer games, guitar pedals, modular synths

These are only an issue if your view on them is shallow enough that you think they exist merely for the purpose of buying more expensive things.

[BoxOfRain]

I have a complicated relationship with Reddit but it really depends on what you're subscribed to I think. A lot of the direction you're nudged in is consumerist rubbish and the whole platform has enough crappy astroturf to build a country's worth of poor quality football pitches, but if you're very careful about what subs you subscribe to and are diligent at blocking what you dislike it can be a useful platform.

I'd drop it in a heartbeat for the old, slightly janky PHP forums it ate though.

[Falkon1313]

Except Reddit is thousands of subforums. If one is toxic, there's another better suited. When moderation on a sub gets out of control it takes maybe 2 clicks for someone to create an alternate subreddit.

Twitter doesn't have anything like that. If there's a problem, well, your only recourse is to become a billionaire, buy out the entire site, fire most of the employees, and try to bend it to your will. But that's more likely to make it worse than better.

[DeathArrow]

I completely disagree. On reddit I've found lots of quality porn.

[worldsayshi]

I think Twitter definitely goes both ways. It encourages and legitimises an ocean of garbage discourse. But then there are also people who use it as a tool for legitimate art.

Personally I think of those accounts when I try to justify staying on the platform. It's not a reasonable justification but somehow it keeps me there.

[licebmi__at__]

Maybe I don’t follow the right people; but even for creators I deeply respect, I haven’t found one who I believe their content benefits of the platform constraints. Any recommendations?

[worldsayshi]

> I haven’t found one who I believe their content benefits of the platform constraints

Yeah you're probably right.

The main account i had in mind when I wrote my comment was this: https://mobile.twitter.com/Ayishat_Akanbi

In each tweet she manages to capture a very nuanced point that doesn't seem to require further explanation. The last couple of tweets doesn't feel like they are totally representative thought.

[api]

This type of argument is at least as old as writing:

https://fs.blog/an-old-argument-against-writing/

Like every other new technology we need to learn how to properly integrate this one. We need systems of etiquette and social custom around these things, and perhaps laws in the most extreme cases. Most importantly we need to individually learn how to regulate our relationship with them.