Is Social Media Hype Even Real?
6/1/202622 min
It’s no secret that what we see on social media is highly choreographed. But a recent article in New York Magazine by Lane Brown confirms it by uncovering the world of artificial hype that drives what we perceive as buzz. The piece dominated the groupchats these last few days, and for good reason: it taps into a general unease about how we’ve ceded our reality to platforms that are manipulated by shadowy ad campaigns. Brown joins the show to lay it all out for us.
And in headlines, Trump’s “walk back weekend,” protestors clash with police outside a New Jersey ICE detention center, and voting begins in the the Colombian presidential election.
Show Notes:
- The Feed Is Fake, by Lane Brown – https://www.vulture.com/article/social-media-feeds-chaotic-good-projects-clipping.html
- Call Congress – 202-224-3121
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- For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsErin Ryan· Host0:00
[upbeat music] It's Monday, June 1st. I'm Erin Ryan, in for Jane Costin, and this is What a Day. School's out, or almost out, for summer, and what have we learned this year, class?
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:11
'Cause most people don't know that, you know, dumb ends with a B, but most people don't know. And all I do- [laughs] ... is I switch the E with a U, and you have a Democrat.
Erin Ryan· Host0:19
This is what happens when you don't hire union writers for your portion of the roast. [upbeat music] On today's show, President Donald Trump's walk-back weekend had not very much winning, but a lot of whining and waste. We're also going to cover escalating protests and government crackdowns outside of an immigrant detention center in New Jersey, and Congress returns this week. Whether or not its members have found their respective spines hiding in their home districts is TBD. But let's start with a conversation about a piece of long-form journalism that confirmed what a lot of us suspected about what we see on social media. It's all choreographed. We're each the star of our own micro Truman Show. Well, kind of. Writing for New York Magazine, Lane Brown's piece uncovers the world of artificial hype that drives what we perceive as buzz. The piece dominated the group chats these last few days, and for good reason. It taps into a general unease about how we've ceded our reality to platforms that are manipulated by shadowy ad campaigns. No wonder Backrooms is killing it at the box office. Here's my conversation with Lane Brown.