📅 Thought for today:
‘Hyperbole is not easily dealt with. Usually, it collapses under its own weight.’
— Gwen Ifill
#thoughtfortoday #hyperbole #exaggeration #extreme #algorithm #socialmedia #manipulation #amazing
I was going to write about hyperbole, and the growth of exaggeration, particularly through social media.
In order to attract attention, it seems everything is amazing, fabulous, unbelievable, and more.
Saying something is good, enjoyable, and professional gains no likes. It attracts no comments, tickles no algorithms.
We have become slaves to the algorithm, manipulated into acting in the way that feeds the social media machine with advertising revenue.
I was further prompted to think this way by some of the comments I read about the new Bond movie.
I enjoyed it, it was good, it was fresh (ish), it was too long (but that was OK).
Was it well crafted, well told, a tribute to the canon?
Somewhat.
Yet to read some of the comments on Facebook and elsewhere you would think it was the greatest film ever released.
I think we filter out the reviews that start with “The most amazing…”, but only after we have read them.
It makes no difference to the advertising income whether we believe what we read, so long as we click.
We have become our own clickbait.
Not so amazing after all.
