I hate self censorship. Last night I was debating sharing an indiewire interview on Twitter where Luca Guadagnino very elegantly explained the process of casting Armie and Timothee' in CMBYN. I won't begin to summarize here because I can't say it like he did. Every word mattered. It was very nuanced. I was SO fearful of being attacked for agreeing with him about casting without judging someone's sexuality while casting. I know what this judgement feels like from being an actor in the early 00s in NYC. I was always afraid they were examining my sexuality and not my skill which led to deep shame and fed my drug addiction. No one seems to get that and when someone says it, they are told they are wrong. I was afraid to post my opinion...and I am a gay actor. I'm literally the person this affects! Anyway. I shared it. I have so few followers, it probably doesn't matter. That being said, I appreciate these posts Sasha. Looking forward to running into you again in person.
I first ventured online in the early 1980s via the old dial-up BBSs. Dan Gookin ("DOS for Dummies") met me on one of them, and ended up hiring me to write the "On-Line San Diego" column in ComputorEdge (yes, it was spelled like that) magazine for many years. Then I ventured onto the Usenet in the late '80s, had an Internet account pre-World Wide Web (telnet and FTP and only .edu domains), CompuServe and AOL and even Prodigy. Grudgingly gave the WWW a try.
So I've been online a long time - and I agree with just about all your observations. Twitter and even Facebook have become angry echo chambers where dehumanization is the norm.
Best thing that could happen to not only our nation, but the world, would be for Twitter and Facebook to simply close shop.
Won't happen, of course, but I'd argue that the examples of AOL and MySpace, or even Atari before them, ought to serve as cautionary tales for those who think the current situation will last forever.
Love your writing - seeing your name in my in-box with one of your columns always makes my day.
Re-reading this, would caution that there IS a (semi)-permanent archive: Archive.org (https://archive.org). Snapshots of tons of websites - including most of mine. Facebook stuff SHOULD disappear if you close your account; same with Twitter and Instagram. There, though, the challenge is that the proto-fascists who troll the 'Net looking for people to destroy save screen captures of stuff that may be taken down later.
Interestingly, while the courts have to date held that Facebook, Twitter, etc., are not "publishers" under the law - that they can't be held liable for what is posted on their platforms - the courts have also been somewhat contradictory in holding that items posted on there are now part of the public record, the same as having a letter published in the newspaper. Seems a collision is likely there.
I hate self censorship. Last night I was debating sharing an indiewire interview on Twitter where Luca Guadagnino very elegantly explained the process of casting Armie and Timothee' in CMBYN. I won't begin to summarize here because I can't say it like he did. Every word mattered. It was very nuanced. I was SO fearful of being attacked for agreeing with him about casting without judging someone's sexuality while casting. I know what this judgement feels like from being an actor in the early 00s in NYC. I was always afraid they were examining my sexuality and not my skill which led to deep shame and fed my drug addiction. No one seems to get that and when someone says it, they are told they are wrong. I was afraid to post my opinion...and I am a gay actor. I'm literally the person this affects! Anyway. I shared it. I have so few followers, it probably doesn't matter. That being said, I appreciate these posts Sasha. Looking forward to running into you again in person.
I first ventured online in the early 1980s via the old dial-up BBSs. Dan Gookin ("DOS for Dummies") met me on one of them, and ended up hiring me to write the "On-Line San Diego" column in ComputorEdge (yes, it was spelled like that) magazine for many years. Then I ventured onto the Usenet in the late '80s, had an Internet account pre-World Wide Web (telnet and FTP and only .edu domains), CompuServe and AOL and even Prodigy. Grudgingly gave the WWW a try.
So I've been online a long time - and I agree with just about all your observations. Twitter and even Facebook have become angry echo chambers where dehumanization is the norm.
Best thing that could happen to not only our nation, but the world, would be for Twitter and Facebook to simply close shop.
Won't happen, of course, but I'd argue that the examples of AOL and MySpace, or even Atari before them, ought to serve as cautionary tales for those who think the current situation will last forever.
Love your writing - seeing your name in my in-box with one of your columns always makes my day.
Re-reading this, would caution that there IS a (semi)-permanent archive: Archive.org (https://archive.org). Snapshots of tons of websites - including most of mine. Facebook stuff SHOULD disappear if you close your account; same with Twitter and Instagram. There, though, the challenge is that the proto-fascists who troll the 'Net looking for people to destroy save screen captures of stuff that may be taken down later.
Interestingly, while the courts have to date held that Facebook, Twitter, etc., are not "publishers" under the law - that they can't be held liable for what is posted on their platforms - the courts have also been somewhat contradictory in holding that items posted on there are now part of the public record, the same as having a letter published in the newspaper. Seems a collision is likely there.