1. Man uses Twitter to describe in real time an exchange of passive-aggressive notes with a rather needy-sounding fellow passenger – Diane – on a delayed flight, which all ends in violence. It’s all terribly amusing.
2. A relative of said Diane comes to her defence, explaining that she doesn’t have long to live and the prospect of having to spend her last ever Thanksgiving away from her family may have explained her bahaviour.
3. Original author of exchange admits that he made it all up. Well, except the Diane defence. Somebody else made that up.
4. From a Wall Street Journal piece about Neetzan Zimmerman, an editor at Gawker:
But telling the truth kills virality, reducing traffic.
5. From a poem written nearly 80 years ago, to which I keep coming back, over and over, hoping against hope that someone will listen:
Human kind cannot bear very much reality.
1 comment:
Nice post. There's a queasy circularity in this stuff - viral content feeding the viral sites which enable the viral content. I can only hope it's all a slowly swelling bubble which has to pop soon.
Great poem, too. Literary Hat on, Zimmerman's spiel (and the conspicuous lack of Western youth protest) reminded me of the Yeats line: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Post a Comment