The Twittiest of Them All

What happens when your interior life becomes a spectacle?

Note:  this is the second piece in a three-part series on social media.  Part one can be found here and part three here.

Analyzing Twitter is akin to writing a fantasy novel.  In both cases, the author must invent a world based on some outline of common experience.  That world will be filled with heroes, villains, imaginary landscapes, and mythical creatures.  Conflict will be epic.  Everything becomes allegory. 

In the end, analyzing Twitter is the more banal undertaking.  There’s a limit to the amount of creativity we can apply to the topic.  Our understanding of social media is deeply subjective.  The transactions and transgressions highlight our digital individualism.  In lots of ways, though, Twitter lends itself to a pack mentality. 

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The Politics of Online Friendship

There’s nothing revolutionary about being unfriended.

Note:  this is the first of a three-part series on social media.  Part two can be found here and part three here.

It happens to everyone.  You’re scrolling through your Facebook feed and encounter a name you either dislike or admire.  You head over to their page to check out the latest news or analysis, or to laugh at their latest bad take, but something’s off.  The page seems incomplete.  And then you realize why.  You immediately direct message [DM] a trusted partner in private gossip:  “I think that fucker unfriended me.” 

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A Ten Step Guide to Exploiting Palestine on the Western Left

Proven to enhance your appeal as a potential guest on liberal programming and facilitate your quest for social media celebrity.

1. Constantly promote people who are more influential, even (or especially) if their politics are to your right.  These luminaries will preferably belong to your own socio-economic class; if not, with a proper effort, you’ll soon belong to theirs. 

2. Occasionally say something decent about Palestine, a signal that you’re hip to the militant stuff, but save your most serious commentary for explaining why Bernie Sanders is the logical heir to George Habash.

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