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Not Clicking is a Discipline for our Time

Eustace C. Scrubb
@EustaceCScrubb
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I was on Twitter the other day, adding to an innocuous thread on films from the 1920s that everyone should see. I suggested Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). Some people liked my response and one person left a comment. “Would women enjoy this?” The comment was a little odd, and it was listed as possible spam. But I still thought I would click on it.

Well, I clicked on this person’s profile. And I saw naked people, and they were doing things that I had no desire to see people doing. I blocked this person (bot) and regretted my decision to click. And remembered why the site is now called ‘X’ rather than 'Twitter.'

Clicking was really a bad idea.

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media that start with “Murder is bad, but…” And I’ve been tempted to click at times. I shouldn’t. Because I really don’t want to see this person’s ‘but.’ There is no way that it’s going in a good direction.

I don’t need to read people’s excuses for evil. The people who post such things probably really want clicks. Even ‘hate clicks’. But I need the discipline to scroll on.

Even at Ricochet, some people who post really annoy me. There’s a member obsessed with bashing Trump. Now, there is a time and a season for Trump bashing, but if a person never sees a time for Trump praise, our worldviews are probably too distant for a good online conversation.

I also recognize that there are probably people who see the little dragon face that mark my posts and think, “That Eustace guy is always too annoying and/or dull.” And that’s good if they pass me by.

The internet is always looking for more clicks. But our lives will be better if we give fewer of them.

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (14)

  • Sisyphus@Sisyphus

    X has a "default" home it makes for you, unhelpfully entitled "for you", where X finds all the junk from people you never followed and never clicked on and throws it at you because the Algorithm made some tortured connection and there's always some valued coder who was handed the Algorithm so whatever he did is gold as far as X is concerned. And on my iPhone, if I switch apps to deal with a call or a text, when I return X will briefly display where I was as a tease before dragging me back to "for you" because that's where everyone always really wants to be. Pathological app design to send the monobrow doomscroller into a phone-destroying rage that will sell another phone to fluff up the coder's Apple stock price. I guess a business model is a business model. Almost all of the horrors of X are found in either the replies or "for you". But I haven't blocked anyone. I grew up in DC. I have been ignoring the ugliest ideas in creation by habit since I discovered the horror of abortion before I was in school.

    Being accepted into the Catholic Church. I have even discovered the vocabulary of this. Custody of the senses. The nudie billboard does not require my attention. The commercial does not require my attention. The troll does not require my attention. Obviously, there are times when an outrage requires a firm and immediate response, but that is not some no name defecating on X.

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