When I was in a frat, we used this app called GroupMe to talk with each other The main distinction between GroupMe and a regular college group message was the ‘likes’ feature, where you could validate individual messages as funny or insightfulhttps://twitter.com/auderdy/status/1206092492489158656 …
One of the guys even made a leaderboard site that would analyze who was sending the most messages with high ‘like’ counts It was real social status, and it could be used in vindictive ways as well (e.g. if you said something out of line, the clap back message got a lot of likes)
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Looking back, GroupMe was instrumental in creating a legible collective culture, with shared norms around humor, politics, sexuality, etc And mostly because its ‘likes’ feature allowed us to strengthen and sanction individual ideas
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Twitter feels kind of like the frat GroupMe in some ways, though in-group boundaries are more fluid than a fraternity with formal initiation processes At least in the public Twitterverse, there are no barriers to entry for new players who want to participate in the discussion
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In many ways, this is a good and exciting thing. On Twitter you can endlessly explore, learn from, and contribute to new subcultures But the loose group boundaries (and ability to leave/mute/block a subculture) also makes it near impossible to form a consensus on anything
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Value judgment: I think the best you can do here is join a subculture populated by kind, curious, and intellectually honest people—then make a point of leaving the echo-bubble (in good faith) once in a while
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End of conversation
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