Chase WoodruffDec 17, 2022

I don't know what will or should come next for the internet, but I find arguments that it's *good* that Twitter and other mass social media platforms may collapse deeply unconvincing.

https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-internet-wants-to-be-fragmented

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/twitter-facebook-social-media-decline/672074/

The internet wants to be fragmented

Throwing the whole world into a single room together doesn't work.

Noahpinion
Show threadChase WoodruffDec 17, 2022
In this moment especially, giving up on the democratic ideal of a town square, just because Musk and other reactionaries have learned to disingenuously parrot that language, seems really ill-advised.
Show threadChase WoodruffDec 17, 2022
And this is just nonsense. We live in a globalized, digitized society, and if democracy has a future in that society, we need global, digital spaces where ordinary people can communicate with one another in public and potentially reach a mass audience doing so.
Show threadChase Woodruff
However imperfectly Twitter may have attained that ideal, I don't think people are really thinking through the alternative of a world where stuff like George Floyd's murder, the onset of the pandemic or the Jan. 6 insurrection happens and the public doesn't have a space for mass communication and organization in response to it.
Dec 17, 2022 at 4:40pmWeb
Show threadChase WoodruffDec 17, 2022
Also: this is a description of the internet that already exists! A small percentage of the population — the people who are most personally or professionally invested in engaging in public affairs — are on Twitter. The rest exited a long time ago or use it very sparingly. The outcome we're facing is that we lose that space entirely.
Show threadBen KlausDec 17, 2022
@dcwoodruff and rumors that they’ve been shutting out accounts from Ukraine, for example, make me worry that the broader goal of Musk and friends might be to reduce mass public communication and organization. (or control it)