Extremely Online
After years of battling bad-faith critics online, some people are keeping their takes to themselves.
In April 2022, creator Paulomi Dholakia had some thoughts about Disney.
Specifically, she was upset the company didnt seem to be promoting theMs.
It made me feel so self-conscious, that maybe I dont need to say stuff, she says.
People want to feel validated.
Do you agree with me?
What do you think?
And just trying to keep up that engagement is a game in itself.
In the early 2010s, Reddit built a culture around these kinds of conversations.
Social media grew into an industry, and these takes were rewarded with more than just attention.
She announced in 2020 that she was takingan indefinite breakfrom social media.
There are always people who are consistently determined to willfully misinterpret what is said, Stella says.
… Its made being online less fun than it used to be.
And I think that thats where the temptation to pull back comes from.
Some of these disagreements are due to what TikTok content creator Michelle Skidelsky refers to as whataboutism.
In April, she posteda videoabout this phenomenon, which she says has become increasingly prevalent on TikTok.
I just dont even want to deal with what would come after.
Its not just the immediate feedback thats exhausting.
People will be like, Well, you said this in 2018, Stella says.
And Im like, OK, I dont know, that b*tch was crazy!
I think Im in the process of changing my mind about a lot of things.
People have accused me of having wild politics because I dont share my politics, she says.
It may feel, then, that its better to share than not.
In reality, Charmaraman says, the opinion environment on social media is somewhat skewed.
I think if people dont know, they just dont speak up, she says.
Plus, silence on a prominent political or social issue can be interpreted as complicity.
For much of the public, however, this explanation was too little, too late.
There have been attempts to change this culture.
Some early users also tried to aggressively pioneer a culture of positivity.
In contrast, Twitter averages more than 100 million active daily users.
One app wouldnt be able to change almost two decades of learned behavior, anyway.