17 Comments

This is the content everyone needs right now. I probably have 250 words muted, but I’ll definitely be adding some of yours. Adding Taylor Lorenz is a great idea. I’m sick of hearing about her.

On my list: Royal Family, Markle, fascist (spelled correctly and incorrectly), GQP, Emma Watson, trigger warning, and trauma.

Some content really just needs to be saved for your therapist and not Twitter, you know? 😕

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Awesome that you included correct and incorrect spelling

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I'm always prepared. I am neither a fascist nor a fasicist.

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😂

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Correction 200—I inflated that number in my head. I just learned you can only mute 200 at a time. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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Rob, I subscribed to read this, and I'm glad I did!

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Dear Rob,

I continue to enjoy your commentaries and ideas. I don't always have time to read them but when I do I like the independence of your thought. Your muting idea seems very practical.  Of course I like to think most of my own Tweets are fairly moderate and often try to initiate a dialog that very rarely ensues. It hardly matters as so few read them! Occasionally I do express anger and passion but its mostly about just a few topics where I indulge as a moralist of sorts.

Anyway I appreciate that you help us to think and will try this muting idea.

Yours,

Ian Webber

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Is there a reason to be on Twitter at all?

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It's a great place for finding interesting thinkers and ideas.

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Thanks.

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I think you really leveled up with the part about “it makes it more boring so I spend less time on it”. Gold observation right there.

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I like that you didn’t identify the prominent academic in question. We can probably all improve how we post and filter online.

Lord is it I?

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One thing I’ve observed through interviewing people is that a lot of lurkers agree & identify with extremists. My sample sizes are small — in the low hundreds— so who knows how well this holds.

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Yeah extreme posters post for extreme lurkers (who provide the likes and validation).

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The Twitter format invites snark, invective and idiocy.

"People who read the news have a more distorted view of their political opponents"

This is interesting. I tend to read the news and hang out in comment sections of sources opposite of my views. I am always attempting to learn something. But I rarely get anything other than Twitter-like snark, invective and other personal attacks.

Muting words just seems like incremental tuning out... maybe a bit of cancellation. How do we know how stupid people are if we mute their words? It seem a bit of putting head in sand pretending the world is a better place than it really is.

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Thanks for the list Rob, I also muted "dog" and "cat" in the hopes that'll I'll spend the extra time I get with the actual furry friends in my life

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Add human while you’re at it.

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