I more-or-less quit Facebook after realizing I was being pulled into too many pointless arguments on there, and my life has been better since. Social media pushes people to indulge their worst instincts. Tristan Harris may be smarmy, but he’s not wrong. 

I read two pieces yesterday and for some reason didn’t post, about a TikTok-famous artist named Devon Rodriguez, and his response to some thoughtful criticism of his exhibition in California. I’ve been thinking of them since I finished.

The first piece (the actual review of the art show) is excellent, and very balanced — the critic is working on the idea of the quality of the art being secondary to the social and technological impact that it has, and how that’s a relatively new thing. I don’t know much about art but I liked the article and it made me want to learn more about the artist.

The follow up piece had the opposite effect — it extinguished all interest in both the artist and the work.

Then this piece from Rolling Stone – the President of Original Programming at HBO had fake accounts setup to troll critics of his networks’ shows, on Twitter and Deadline. (Also, it’s the least of his bad behaviour, if the person filing the lawsuit is telling the truth.)

Someone once said to me that ‘what other people think of you is none of your business’ — it’s good advice, but it’s a lot harder to heed when you’re famous or important, I guess.