I do find it kinda interesting how much of booktok is about hating reading, writing, and books.

https://twitter.com/Ainwonderland/status/1833531647490461945

I did not know this was a thing but I guess I believe it

Pretty insane that after 9 years of this the media still thinks that since Trump speaks incoherently and lies all the time he can't ever be accused of holding any position at all and you aren't allowed to accurately quote him.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1825784820187750607

"Trump didn't say he won't accept an election loss he only said that any election loss will be the result of cheating and he won'taccept it."

Lotta replies saying it's too old for any college student to have watched. But in the 90s it would have been bizarre to claim no college student would know Star Wars, Jaws, Godfather, or other big 70s films.

Does seem like there's been a shift to an ever-present media culture

https://twitter.com/PetreRaleigh/status/1768708381064175908

This isn't a comment on the Matrix per se. Just that it's notable if we now expect few will ever watch films or listen to music or read books that are from before their birth.

Dealing with Chatbot student essay has been more depressing than I expected. The essays are nonsense. They say nothing, invent quotations, get facts wrong. The students have learned nothing, not even how to cheat well.

Just a huge waste of time. Far less like "using a calculator" than using a program that spits out nonsense equations that LOOK like math but aren't.

I'm not sure how to square the hopeful and I don't think entirely wrong points made here with the obvious creative stagnation in media and entertainment over last decade.

I guess the algorithm herd mentality of social media is just the stronger force...

https://twitter.com/broderick/status/1646343338373574660?t=IVSQuZAdjyXn8X0GXnPpfA&s=19

These algorithms reward talking about what everyone else is talking about. I follow mostly the kind of artists, lefty journalists, and such who normally would never talk about boring mainstream stuff and yet my feed is still filled with talk of the most dull mainstream stuff

All of this debate is very silly and tired.

But in general, writers like to be paid for producing content. Sometimes we'll do it for free. Asking us to PAY to produce content for you is a pretty bad deal lol

https://twitter.com/micsolana/status/1642895082868146177

Yes Musk is awful ideologically. But fundamentally it's just a bad deal.

This is why people aren't clamoring to pay for Facebook or other social media either.

It was bad enough they made tons of money off our free work. Now they want us to pay to make their apps work?

I feel like you should have to write your own books to complain about this

https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/1642835607826100226?t=9Qvh82OyRHRmHhpJsrdh6Q&s=19

In all seriousness, I don't know NYT's exact formula but it's 100% correct NOT to just count raw sales as rich people and political pacs intentionally try to rig the bestseller list.

E.g.: theverge.com/2017/8/27/1620…

It's still wild to me how quickly much of the media went from "crypto and the metaverse are about to change EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE" to never mentioning either again.

Anyway, about those "A.I" articles... Chatbots have more potential for "disruption" I think--at a minimum likely to increase disinformation and replace some jobs-- but some tempering of expectations is probably useful here...

This is an optimistic take that seems at least somewhat right.

Certainly the immediate application of AI writing isn't replacing great novels or TV scripts, but replacing low-effort recycled online "content" and brand social media posts and such.

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1599388344655323145

Similarly, AI art generators are going to be replacing stock images in online articles before they're replacing museum gallery work.

That said, whether this leads to more pay for original art/writing... we'll see.

The problem with Taibbi agreeing to unnamed conditions from Musk isn't just that he let a source dictate reporting, but that he's enacting the *very thing* he's claiming to expose: the secret rules the rich and powerful use to shape narratives. Since people are asking how we know Musk was the source and is involved in orchestraing: Musk publicly claimed he was spurce and keeps saying "we"

If Musk is lying and not involved at all, Taibbi should expose this...

One of the main features of American anti-intellectualism is a belief that no one *really* likes anything that isn't mass pop culture. That if you read poetry, watch foreign movies, listen to bands not on top 40 radio, whatever, you must be in some sense faking it. It's so ingrained that even when something deemed intellectual IS popular they believe it's some kind of mass deception.

I remember BR Meyers "Readers Manifesto" saying something about Cormac McCarthy fans being miserable... even as he was a bestselling Oprah book club pick

Nothing more tiring that bodega discourse, but it's also absolutely not true that most cities have a convivence store within two blocks of any given home.... (much less ones that aren't chains)

Bodegas aren't THAT special but you don't have to lie lol

https://twitter.com/tinywienerbabe/status/1518147118078173185

The replies are full of people posting Wawa gas stations on a highway a 10 minute drive from their house saying "we have bodegas too!" come on

It's actually kind of strange how many high profile pundits have just never once thought about how the world works at all Like it really doesn't take any time to think "Oh wait, there are fire escapes on every building, fire hydrants you can't park in front of, levees, evacuation routes, hurricane warning systems, building codes for earthquake areas, smoke alarms, etc. etc. etc."