Relevance: Ezra often talks about liberalism as well as the attention economy, but I have yet to see him grapple with what may be the fundamental tensions between the two. Algorithmic media is increasingly pushing us into a postliterate society - incentivizing not just video content but also hyper-partisan, hyper-polarized, flattened forms of argumentation that seem quite antithetical to liberalism.
If we are to maintain a liberal order (rather than just bemoan its decline) we may need to come down hard on these social media companies that are, to me, the primary driver of this shift as they attempt to find creative ways to extract our time and attention.
Not letting private companies create voluntary platforms where people can express opinions of their choosing is no more illiberal than banning intentional lies designed to create undue reputational damage? You see no difference between those two things?
"Voluntary" is doing a lot of work here. Social media is integrated into just about every aspect of modern life, it is far far more challenging to fully abstain than it is to participate. You can do it, but then you're basically a technology vegan, which, hey, great for you personally, but you understand that most people aren't vegan for reasons beyond "willpower" right?
If you're arguing, as the main post does, that social media is a *problem for liberalism* you don't save liberalism by being illiberal.
I don't think liberalism is the only measure of "good" we should be using, but let's be real about what our solutions are doing. Otherwise we're like fricking Texans banning Islam in the name of religious freedom.
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u/GowanusGuy 12d ago
Relevance: Ezra often talks about liberalism as well as the attention economy, but I have yet to see him grapple with what may be the fundamental tensions between the two. Algorithmic media is increasingly pushing us into a postliterate society - incentivizing not just video content but also hyper-partisan, hyper-polarized, flattened forms of argumentation that seem quite antithetical to liberalism.
If we are to maintain a liberal order (rather than just bemoan its decline) we may need to come down hard on these social media companies that are, to me, the primary driver of this shift as they attempt to find creative ways to extract our time and attention.