"Like, the thing that really gives me hope is watching teenagers think that what I do is so goddamn cringe, and I'm like: Yes, I'm gonna do it more, so that you think it's more cringe and you never do what I've done with my life. Stay away from this box. Charlie Warzel: Stay away. Green: Stay away from the misery square."
"Warzel: I'm Charlie Warzel, and welcome to Galaxy Brain. Thank you for joining me here on the ground floor of this project. I am thrilled that you are here. This show is nominally about the internet and attention and the ways that all the tools and the media that we use and consume change us in weird and unexpected ways. And for a long time, I used to describe the internet as this black box, right, that"
Long-running creators built massive, trusting audiences by mastering platform algorithms, entrepreneurship, education, and consistent content. The internet once felt smaller, serendipitous, and inspiring, but attention-driven platforms and algorithmic optimization have incentivized sensational headlines and engagement-maximizing content. These dynamics produced a 'misery machine' that rewards outrage and polarization while eroding institutional trust and privileging individual creators. Platform migration and creator strategies influence where people spend attention, with some leaving certain apps. Cultural feedback loops can make the environment worse before improving. Observing younger people reject certain creator behaviors offers a countervailing force that could shift norms away from attention-seeking traps.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]