RSS Parrot

Want to Make It as a Creator? Be Famous, Go Viral or Go Fuck Yourself.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/want-to-make-it-as-a-creator-be-famous-go-viral-or-go-fuck-yourself/

Published: December 21, 2024 23:11

Here’s the brutal truth about mainstream success: You either need to be famous already, or you need to be willing to light yourself on fire for attention.That’s it. Those are your options. Yes, there are exceptions, but it largely comes down to those…

Everything Is Always Getting Worse (Until It Isn't)

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/everything-is-always-getting-worse-until-it-isnt/

Published: December 19, 2024 19:45

A few months ago, I found myself doomscrolling through X (first mistake) when I found a thread about how “everything is getting worse.” The author had assembled an impressive collection of graphs showing declining trust in institutions, rising…

Meet the Conflict Entrepreneurs. They’re Fucking All of Us.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/meet-the-conflict-entrepreneurs-theyre-fucking-all-of-us/

Published: December 18, 2024 19:35

Social media runs on conflict. This isn’t exactly breaking news — but what’s worth thinking about is how this has spawned an entire class of what we might call “professional conflict entrepreneurs” and their cousins, the “trauma grifters.” These

You Got Dragged on the Internet. Stop Building a Shrine to It.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/you-got-dragged-on-the-internet-stop-building-a-shrine-to-it/

Published: December 17, 2024 19:16

“Once the bear’s hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.” — Harold MacMillanA pattern, common to the internet in 2024. Someone has a conflict with a member of Group X. Let’s say they get called

Stop Expecting Facebook to Fix What We Can't Fix in Real Life

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/stop-expecting-facebook-to-fix-what-we-cant-fix-in-real-life/

Published: December 16, 2024 21:26

There's been a lot of hand-wringing about social media moderation of late."Platform X isn't doing enough to stop harmful content!""Platform Y is censoring too much speech!""Platform Z needs better content moderation!"But there's something deeply

How We Became the McWorld - Global Culture is Getting More Boring

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/how-we-became-the-mcworld-global-culture-is-getting-more-boring/

Published: December 15, 2024 20:58

In the 1990s, we were promised a digital utopia. The internet would be a uniting, democratizing force, they said, bringing diverse voices and perspectives from every corner of the world into dialogue. Local cultures would flourish as they found their…

Why the Internet Era Might Be History's Least-Documented Period

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-the-internet-era-might-be-historys-least-documented-period/

Published: December 14, 2024 05:51

Last week, I tried to find some photos from my college graduation. Despite being only fifteen years ago, they proved surprisingly elusive - trapped on a defunct Photobucket account, lost to a crashed hard drive, and scattered across social media platforms…

The Matthew Effect of Post-Twitter Social Networks

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-matthew-effect-of-post-twitter-social-networks/

Published: December 12, 2024 21:08

The Matthew Effect was first coined by sociologists Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman in 1968, who noticed that eminent scientists tended to get disproportionate credit for collaborative research compared to their less-well-known colleagues. The same…

The Cathedral of the Blue Bird

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-cathedral-of-the-blue-bird/

Published: December 11, 2024 23:11

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, fracturing the unified Catholic hierarchy that had dominated European spiritual and social life for centuries.In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion,…

Members Only: The Obsession Economy

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/members-only-the-obsession-economy/

Published: December 10, 2024 19:52

The world isn’t falling apart—it’s being pried apart, one stolen moment at a time. Attention has become the most coveted commodity, and we’re little more than unwitting marks in a global grift. The apps, platforms, and systems sucking up our time aren&

Why Elite Education is the Next Ponzi Scheme to Collapse

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-elite-education-is-the-next-ponzi-scheme-to-collapse/

Published: December 9, 2024 21:31

Last week I recorded a podcast with a friend who works in private equity. More on that later. He mentioned that his firm looks at education the same way they looked at housing in 2007 - a market propped up by cheap debt, artificial scarcity, and mass…