Dive 87: Beating a game rigged against you
Hey, it’s Alvin!
The other day, I was strolling along the streets of downtown Toronto. A concrete jungle with towering office buildings lining the streets on a warm, sunny day. And as I approached an intersection, I heard shouting.
Like many big cities, Toronto has its share of knife and gun crimes. Of course, shouting doesn’t always mean violence. But a ruckus can always descend into chaos. You never know.
So, when you first identify a potential threat from a distance, I consider it a good idea to assess the situation.
Scan the environment.
What’s happening around you?
What are other people in the area doing?
Are they standing around or running away from a particular area?
Are people staring in a particular direction?
In my case, I could see people carrying on as if nothing was happening. As I closed in on the intersection, I could see some people glancing to my left. But they weren’t fixated, which told me they perceived little to no threat.
But a random person constantly shouting is still out-of-the-ordinary. So, it’s smart to keep your eyes and ears open in case the situation deteriorates.
As I arrived at the intersection, I peered around the corner of a building to my left to see a man shouting, “YOU FUCKIN’ WHORE…” He was just repeating that at no one in particular as he gradually made his way across the street.
What I wanted to highlight is that unusual occurrences draw our attention because they trigger our survival instincts. But these instincts can be exploited by people who don’t have your best interests at heart.
Neotoddlerism
recently wrote about The Outrageous Rise of Neotoddlerism—the rise of protesters who throw tantrums like toddlers to raise awareness for their causes. It’s an informative piece about its origins and effects on us and the world. So, I recommend checking it out later. But to give you a taste…The rise of Neotoddlerism is partly caused by social media platforms because they reward infantile behaviours. The more outrageous a person is, the more attention they get. As they draw more attention, others stay on the platform longer, which increases ad revenue for the platforms.
For example, some Neotoddler protesters sprayed Stonehenge with orange paint to “raise awareness.” But those kinds of disruptive protests just make ordinary people hate them more, which undermines their own causes.
And the grim irony is that, by believing the world is worse than it actually is, neotoddlers make the world worse. Their disruptions and vandalism exert a huge economic and social cost on society, and they prevent ordinary people from getting to work, attending funerals of loved ones, and meeting vital medical appointments.
So, what’s the solution?
Gurwinder suggests we deny them attention. We need to slow down and be more conscious of what we pay attention to. In fact, we should divert our attention to those “whose behaviours we wish to encourage.”
I think that’s a great starting point. I’m a huge believer in being responsible, taking initiative, and being the change you wish to see in others.
BUT…
There is a serious limitation to this idea we need to address…
Ignoring Neotoddlerism
Telling people to just ignore attention whores is a perpetual losing battle.
As it has been for centuries.
“Just ignore them” is as useful as “just ignore the car accident.” I’ve heard that my whole life. Not that it’s ever stopped drivers from slowing down to gawk at an accident.
It would be like me telling you to ignore the pink elephant below.
“Just ignore the protesters” is like saying “just ignore the ads.” I’ve been told that, too. And if it worked?
Advertisers would go out of business.
Ad blockers would not be needed.
YouTube’s primary revenue source? Gone.
The first reason “just ignoring” Neotoddlers is hard for many people is because it goes against our basic survival instincts. There’s a reason we keep an eye on the crazy man shouting about whores in the middle of a busy downtown intersection. Our attention is drawn to things that are out-of-the-ordinary. Because anything that behaves in unexpected ways is a potential threat to our livelihoods. So, we focus on it until we understand it well enough to know it’s safe to carry on.
There’s also the matter that we live in an environment where attention-seeking Neotoddlerism is actively encouraged by the most powerful people on the planet.
Because it makes money.
But if societally destructive behaviours are actively encouraged, then we need to actively push back. We can’t just ignore them. In fact, you could say that we have ignored Neotoddlers so well that they escalated their tantrums to become outrageous. Here’s why…
Discouraging Neotoddlerism
I work as a software developer, which means I have peers review my code all the time. If I write bad code that my reviewer just ignores, then I can’t know whether it’s good or bad. Most likely, I will make the same mistake next time.
But the cost of a mistake only grows over time. I may implement the same bad code in a bigger, more complex system. It could crash the system, costing my company millions of dollars.
Problems grow to the size they need for you to acknowledge them.
- Luca Dellanna in 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late, 3rd Edition
So, it’s not enough for us to just ignore Neotoddlerism. We must point it out and be clear that society does not tolerate it.
But if you’ve ever gotten feedback from random strangers, you know that this has serious limits too. Feedback is taken more seriously when it comes from an authoritative source. More on that later.
As long as social media platforms reward infantile behaviours, we’re swimming against the tide. Yes, we should ignore sensationalism because that would discourage social media platforms from promoting outrage. But then we’re asking people to use sheer willpower to fight their own instincts and giant corporations pushing back hard. That’s why we need to stop companies from spreading sensationalism by holding them accountable to all the people they serve. Not just the advertisers paying their bills. What might that look like?
One solution is to form a consumer group that pushes for rules against Neotoddlerism. By pushing social media companies to adopt and enforce a code of conduct, administrators and users can point to it as an explicit authoritative source and say, “hey, we don’t tolerate tantrums. If you want to raise an issue, do it as a mature adult. Or you’re out of here.”
There are places on the internet that are well-moderated only because they explicitly set clear rules and enforce them.
It’s time to extend this to wild west social media platforms.
And while we’re at it: legacy news media.
This game is rigged against you. But this is how we beat it. Together.
Reply to belowthesurfacetop@gmail.com or click “Message Alvin” below if you have questions or comments. I’d love the hear from you.
Thank you for reading. Push back on Neotoddlerism. And I’ll see you in the next one.