scalable stupidity

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“The internet didn’t make us stupid. It made stupidity scalable.” —J.A. Westenberg

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” —George Orwell, ‘1984’

“you can give someone a fish and then teach them to fish. It’s a lot easier to learn how to fish when you’re not starving.” —ebel aurora

“Employers: Everyone must return to the office, because we work best when people collaborate face-to-face.
Also: We’re going to replace everyone with AI.”
—Jeff Johnson

How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation

“The evidence is clear that folks of all ages struggle to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information that they encounter online, and we need to figure out ways to support people, to find better ways to make sense of the content that streams across their devices.”

Pluralistic: Sarah Wynn-Williams’s ‘Careless People’

Facebook tames its employees, freeing it from labor consequences for its bad acts. As engineering supply catches up with demand, Facebook’s leadership come to realize that they don’t have to worry about workforce uprisings, whether incited by impunity for sexually abusive bosses, or by the company’s complicity in genocide and autocratic oppression.

First, Facebook becomes too big to fail.
Then, Facebook becomes too big to jail.
Finally, Facebook becomes too big to care.

This is the “carelessness” that ultimately changes Facebook for the worse, that turns it into the hellscape that Wynn-Williams is eventually fired from after she speaks out once too often. Facebook bosses aren’t just “careless” because they refuse to read a briefing note that’s longer than a tweet. They’re “careless” in the sense that they arrive at a juncture where they don’t have to care who they harm, whom they enrage, who they ruin.