MSNBC host Chris Hayes explains why incoming social attention from strangers on social platforms causes psychological distress for ordinary individuals.
Opinion
Hayes: X Serves Elon Musk's Political Project Rather Than Pure Attention
“X very clearly has an objective other than attention, which is the political project of its owner. You know what I mean? So like, there's a place where like, yes, that attention is being aggregated for a specific political process. Project. That political proj…”
Opinion
Hayes: Musk's Twitter takeover converted political power into financial gains via Trump
“What it did was it created a kind of political power That then created financial rewards on the backside, because once you get Donald Trump elected, all of a sudden everyone wants to be your buddy, and your stock price goes up.”
Opinion
Hayes: Regulating and capping screen time or attention consumption is not crazy
“I don't think that's a crazy idea. I mean, I don't want the Chinese model for a lot of things, but you know, there are some, certain things the Chinese are pretty good at. I think that we can, if we can regulate, you know, the argument I make in the book about…”
Insight
Hayes: TikTok's model outcompetes all media like casino slot machines
“And I basically think that the TikTok model, which is like short form video married to machine learning is the, like,
The way that slot machines outcompete everything on a casino floor, I just think that, like, outcompetes everything.”
Insight
Digital Creators Now Reverse Engineer Algorithms Instead of Producing Original Art
“There's a little bit of the, this reversing, like, what will sell out there? What will get attention? And then you reverse engineer and make that content, as opposed to, I have this to say. I want to write this poem. I want to make this song, like, I want to m…”
Opinion
Hayes: Biden's age and inflation explain 85% of 2024 election outcome
“Biden was old and inflation was high. It gets you, like, 85% of the way there, the causal story, and I think if you look across basically every democracy holding elections in the post-COVID age of inflation, the penalty against incumbency was, like, high range…”