Whenever we can, we aim for intelligence and silliness.  Today we hit it, stories about social media from a researcher who has studied it for almost twenty years.  That’s the clever part, from smart to the best art to take in when hungover and a piece on Internet stories from other people.  Finishing out with a Prince clip that we could have made the entire newsletter today.  It’s Prince being himself, in the best way possible!

Researcher Danah Boyd wrote a fascinating post on Medium about Social Media.  Boyd has been following and, in several cases, researching social media back to Friendster.  In her piece, she talks about the social graph and acknowledges that the type of content that draws traffic and engagement is led by anger and outrage more than sentiment and optimism. 

When you start putting it together, the cycle goes from rage to increased traffic and engagement, time on the platform, and additional algorithm updates based on personal choices recorded in real-time, allowing for ads, ads, ads, and more ads, as long as you stay on the platform.  Ads are heroin, social media is the needle, and rage is the addiction.

Boyd says we are in a time of the digital Roman Coliseum, and we can’t look away.  She goes deep into the rise and fall of social media apps and the inevitable failure of all companies, whether in 1 year or 100 years, and has an interesting take on what she considers the fall of local news and journalism—starting with private equity and hedge funds looking for real estate in the 80s and 90s. 

Boyd is an expert and spent more time researching these topics than anyone else we’ve read or listened to.  Her closing thoughts talk of a slow death, the worst kind.  We appreciate the thoughtfulness of the piece. Unfortunately, we are watching it burn all around us in that coliseum.

Sometimes we cross a story that makes us think about the writer’s room or story pitch at certain media companies.  The Guardian is a legit house of journalism; we are grateful they continue to find great stories and deliver them up, so we can read them and give them to you.  Today, The Guardian provides us with a collection of art that can be consumed after a night of too much indulgence. 

We are split on the recommendations themselves, but writing about art for hangovers that’s our wheelhouse!  The music recommendation is good but a little complicated for a rough brain day, in our opinion.  We have added Erland Cooper to our playlists for other times.  The TV and Film categories were spot on; in our opinion, the Guardian is based in the U.K. some of the recommendations could be better across the pond.  In the U.S., nothing beats a greasy fast-food burger or taco while watching whatever mind-numbing show you can find. 

The painting, The Hangover, captures the feeling of being hungover as well as any image we’ve seen.  We aren’t sure if looking in a “painting mirror” with a hangover is the best way to deal with one, but we plan to try it.

The book is the only recommendation we are out on; it’s not the book Lucky Jim, it’s any book or any reading, and this may also be a split between countries.  We think a hangover is one level up from not getting out of bed.  You can probably read if a hangover in the U.K. is more of a weekly thing.

Another story about another story.  We’ve written about Embedded before; today, they join the ranks of the year-end list posters with a twist. 

This piece is snarky, funny, and sometimes devious; add that up, and it’s a fun weekend read.  The commentary by the writers and fans that wrote in Embedded is as good as the posts they choose to highlight.  Our favorites include:

3. Starving child – Gootbye

2. Hello, IDIOT

1. Subway sandwich cruise missiles

Seth talks about the theme of AI and how we should look at it. We used his blog's last line as the day's quote. Use the technology to make the work better, not to do the work.

Another A.I. story we read today was about a person who used the new ChatGPT to help him write an entire diet and exercise plan for losing ten pounds in three months. This is how you can use technology to help with the work - Chat GPT helped put the plan together fast - the A.I. cannot lose weight.

Great album; I can’t imagine the giggling that went into the layout on this one.

Prince is many things; for some of us, he is one of the greatest guitar players we’ve ever seen.  This video reminds us why and makes us think how rocking Heaven can be with Jimmy, Stevie, Eddie, and Prince on guitars!

[Music Notes]

For today’s Music Notes, watch the Prince clip again!

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Tear it all down.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout Team