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gog  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   6433 thread views

Where are the people smarter than us hanging out?

In Paul Fussell’s book on class (I think), he says that people are really worried about differentiating themselves from the class immediately below them, but largely ignorant of the customs and sometimes even existence of the classes above them. When I found SSC, and then The Motte, and stuff like TLP, I was astonished to find a tier of the internet I had had no idea even existed. The quality of discourse here is . . . usually . . . of the kind that “high brow” (by internet standards) websites THINK they are having, but when you see the best stuff here you realize that those clowns are just flattering themselves. My question is, who is rightly saying the same thing about us? Of what intellectual internet class am I ignorant now? Or does onlineness impose some kind of ceiling on things, and the real galaxy brains are at the equivalent of Davos somewhere?

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I am surprised at the number of people who don't use social media in this blog

Just as an anecdotal data point: the most social-media addicted people that I know are all older than forty (amongst them, a 76-year old lady hooked on Tik Tok), whereas I know quite a few people under 30 who have quit all social media.

I'm near-30 and I might be one of the most plugged-in to recent meme culture here.

It makes sense. For those who use it, it's just the statu quo, whereas those who don't are very aware that they are swimming upstream.

Twitter is hardly social media. Or more specifically rarely is anyone from GenZ following people they know on Twitter. Instagram > TikTok > Twitter, as far as how "social" the website is. TikTok is the big cultural force, and Instagram is the sociocultural force. Twitter is more media than social, It has sway in some circles (western urban millenials) but the veracity/volume doesn't compare relative to the other two.

By my count, if you're following people not topics, it's social media.

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