Social Media Has Everyone Using Fear and Outrage to Get Attention, even the NY Times

Social Media Has Everyone Using Fear and Outrage to Get Attention, even the NY Times

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’m making an example of the Times because they like to consider themselves America’s “Paper of Record”, and even they are now using fear and outrage to gain attention, no better than a Twitter or Facebook troll, but it’s happening everywhere. It’s also no surprise that it’s becoming popular among all media outlets because it works. If we’ve learned anything from fake news sites, biased cable channels, YouTube “experts” and social media influencers it’s that you will never lose an audience by making people afraid. You will get their attention, you will stimulate a fear-based response that causes their brain to kick into survival mode and become hyperalert to dangers, which you are happy to continue to feed them.

Linked: Instagram Has Quietly Been Asking Users to Set Up Multiple Accounts
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Linked: Instagram Has Quietly Been Asking Users to Set Up Multiple Accounts

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

I know I’ve read elsewhere over the years that this was actually popular with teens, to have a “public” Instagram and then one just for friends. Even an old out-of-touch guy like me has had two Instagram accounts for years. One to just be me and have fun with, and one to focus on mental health stuff.

It seems to me like Instagram is just catching up with what we’ve been doing, and trying to juice up some numbers among the folks who hadn’t already considered doing this, right?

Linked: CNN Shutting Down Its Facebook In Australia Shows How Removing 230 Will Silence Speech
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Linked: CNN Shutting Down Its Facebook In Australia Shows How Removing 230 Will Silence Speech

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

And this same song and dance will repeat for every single site on the internet until there’s very little left. The only companies with enough resources to actually do all the things that would be required to monitor all content, ironically, would be Google, Facebook, etc.

Gee, it’s almost like giving them a gift, eliminating ALL of the competition. It’s no wonder Facebook has been asking for regulation. They know the rest of us won’t be able to keep up.

Culture is Defined by the Worst Behavior Tolerated
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Culture is Defined by the Worst Behavior Tolerated

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

I wish I could take credit for the line in the title. But, I can’t. It has, however, been rumbling around in my brain for the past couple of days since I heard John Amaechi say it on a recent episode of Adam Grant’s podcast “Worklife” (Go listen to the whole episode, it’s very thought-provoking)

In an episode about how to build an anti-racist workplace, this was the line that sort of stopped not only me, but Adam as well. And, I think it applies to much more than anti-racism.

Linked: Twitter announces new features to help you make money and fight trolls
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Linked: Twitter announces new features to help you make money and fight trolls

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

The Super Follow option to charge for access to some of your tweets got all the headlines, and holds exactly zero interest for me, but this little gem might be interesting.

“Twitter is working on a new Communities feature for the platform, which will let users create groups with people who share similar interests. The feature will essentially work like Facebook Groups, and it will let you share tweets exclusively with your community members.”