97% of all US tweets come from less than 6% of American adults. If you're treating this platform as representative of the broader population, rather than those particular users, you will draw many wrong conclusions. Yet many elites—from pundits to politicians—continue to do this.
Previous Pew studies have shown that Twitter users are younger, richer, and more educated than the general population. In other words, very similar to the cloistered elite we see off Twitter, just a little younger. pewresearch.org/internet/2019/…
My general rule is that social media platforms are representative of the most active users on them—no more, no less. Facebook represents active Facebook users. Twitter represents Twitter users. Understand that and you can learn something. Generalize beyond it, you get in trouble.
As those who've followed me for a while know, I've actually been spending less and less time on Twitter, in part because I think it distorts my perception of the country and world I am supposed to be covering. yair.substack.com/p/how-social-m…
My latest piece tackles an old question: Why are social media platforms so bad at moderating antisemitic content? Today in Deep Shtetl, I offer three reasons you probably haven't heard, but explain a lot: newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
1) Social media companies lack the cultural competency to even identify most antisemitism. Because they don't know what the prejudice looks like, they are terrible at fighting it. newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
Some professional news: I'm joining @TheAtlantic to write a new newsletter about the potent but often misunderstood forces that shape our world, from social media to religious faith to popular culture. It's called DEEP SHTETL. Sign up to get it here! newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/
@TheAtlantic "Deep Shtetl is the stories behind the stories; the people off the beaten track who don’t appear on all your podcasts; the things & communities we think we understand but don’t. We won't avoid big items but will try to ask different questions about them." newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
@TheAtlantic "We’ll explore what religious traditions can tell us about forgiveness in the social-media age; what Albert Einstein’s intervention in a 1944 Hebrew University controversy can teach us about today’s debates over academic freedom..." newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
My favorite thing about Gab is that they changed their web site from gab.ai to gab.com after their own members got paranoid that it was a Jewish front because "gabai" is the traditional Jewish word for a synagogue overseer. tabletmag.com/sections/news/…
You've got this all wrong. If they banned the Gab account, I wouldn't get to have nearly as much fun making fun of them. One of the few joys of this depressing web site.
Powerful pro-vaccination PSA today from Orthodox rabbis in New York: "The ribono shel olam [creator of the world] has given us a precious gift. It's called the covid-19 vaccine." "Unvaccinated people die! They die." "What's the shaylah [question] over here? Are we playing games?"
"When we take the vaccine, we're helping everybody, and that's a double mitzvah."
Some good corona news you may not have heard amid all the noise: An Israeli study found that the 3rd vaccine dose they gave to people over 60 was 86% effected against Delta *infection*. In other words, we can supercharge our societal immunity w/ boosters. reuters.com/business/healt…
Israel's experience (early mass vaccination, followed by recent Delta breakthrough cases) suggests that much of what we're seeing now is just prior vaccine doses wearing off, which can be fixed with another dose. We get a new flu shot every year, could do same for this.
"According to [Israeli] Health Ministry figures, the results are very promising. Third-dose recipients appear to be 2.5 times more protected from infection than those who only received the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine." timesofisrael.com/a-million-isra…
Before the pandemic, I used to crisscross the country and speak to people interested in understanding and combating anti-Jewish prejudice. But it always felt like fighting a losing battle.
I could only be in so many places at once, and couldn’t possibly address all the communities that sought guidance on this subject. So starting nine months ago, I embarked on an ambitious project to change that. I began scripting and designing a web series about antisemitism.
Today, I’m proud to share the result with you.
The series consists of six videos, each providing straightforward answers to difficult questions about antisemitism that many people have, but are afraid to ask.