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Also, back to performative grievance, I feel like the Lindsay Ellis/Raya/The Last Airbender drama is a perfect example of this. Her tweet was absolutely harmless, if someone actually took the time to do a good faith interpretation, but people WANTED to be hurt and offended by it, so... Here we are.

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Ah, I see. Yeah I don't know about that controversy, mercifully.

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Consider yourself blessed.

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Two points.

1) I don't know you, and I understand the tendency, but don't hedge. Be gracious in your words, but at this point, anyone who isn't aware of the negative side effects/results of social media is willfully ignorant. There are a few other parts as well, which, again, I understand the concern of trying to come off as understanding, but these are serious issues. Being blunt isn't a bad thing.

2) Your last section is exactly what I am concerned about with social media overall: we want to be heard, and we aren't being heard elsewhere. Or, we are, and we are just drunk off affirmation. Lot of different angles, but I really think, by and large, the majority of us wouldn't be constantly online if our actual embodied lives were healthier.

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Haha thank you! Yeah I tend to hedge a bit much sometimes because I have, historically, written too harshly and want to guard against that. But I agree: we are drunk on affirmation, and our desire to be ever-online is very often rooted in a dissatisfaction with our lives offline.

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Have you read much from Sherry Turkle? If not, I highly recommend her work, Reclaiming Conversation. Honestly, as blasphemous as this sounds, I'd recommend her book above everything else, even the Bible right now.* We are "too familiar" with the Bible, but don't know how to handle this incredibly volatile situation, with our inability to properly communicate with others, and what social media is doing to us as people.

* Obviously tongue-in-cheek here...

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Yes, I have read a good bit of her, including Reclaiming Conversation.

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That makes sense. I can hear a lot of her echoes in your writing. In a great way!

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