An Elegy To Snark
Every social media platform prizes something different. With Instagram, it\u2019s aesthetics. On TikTok, it\u2019s theatre-kid energy. And with Twitter, it was information and wit, conveyed via the written word.
Jonathan Goldsbie is very good at Twitter. But Twitter is no longer Twitter.
Every platform gradually withers \u2014 but since Elon Musk purchased it, the site\u2019s ongoing transformation into the very worst version of itself has been by design.
So what\u2019s a person like Goldsbie to do, when confronted with the prospect of terminal, destructive decline? What happens when X spots a mark?
Host: Jesse Brown
Credits: Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Further reading:
- Social media for the media social club: the slightly bizarre, happy story of #goldsbiephone \u2014 Toronto Life (2011)
- \u2018It sucks, because I made zero dollars from it\u2019: how I coined Big Dick Energy \u2014 The Guardian (2018)
- The Tweets Hereafter \u2014 Short Cuts (2022)
- Insult as Injury \u2014 The New York Times (2009)
- Elon Musk Is Spreading Election Misinformation, but X\u2019s Fact Checkers Are Long Gone \u2014 The New York Times (2024)
Additional music by Audio Network
Sponsors: AG1, Oxio, Squarespace
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