#57: Fake LinkedIn profiles and social media is predictable
Plus cool web moments, a flight simulator, search engine and *sigh* CryptoMarry.
💎 Word gems
The Predictability of a Social-Media Discourse (Galaxy Brain, The Atlantic / Charlie Warzel)
Everything becomes a meme now. It’s because anything that ends up on social media plays out in the same way, with all of us taking up predictable roles in the system.
If living in one of these “clouds of conflict” on social media is exhausting, it is because of that tension between taming the beast and feeding the monster. Our feeds are a cascading series of prompts: to joke around, defend people and things we care about, to raise awareness, to humiliate others, to contribute and feel seen. It’s not just hard psychologically to resist those prompts (especially when people rightly or understandably feel marginalized or attacked or outraged); it’s also—for many participants in these ecosystems—a business decision of sorts. Raising awareness and pushing back or calling others out might be righteous at times, but it also means generating engagement for yourself or your cause and the thing you dislike. There’s a constant risk/reward calculus we’re asked to make before posting, and the problem is that the deck is stacked against us. We take the prompt, we play the role, we create a bit of the broader feeling of exhaustion we bemoan. This is how we end up inadvertently rewarding many of the most shameless people in politics, media, sports, you name it.
That smiling LinkedIn profile face might be a computer-generated fake (NPR / Shannon Bond)
LinkedIn is a surreal place already - the cold InMail messages, the hyped up job profiles, and the absurd thought leadership - but knowing it’s being filled with fake profiles makes it feel even more eerie.
At first glance, Ramsey's profile looks like many others on LinkedIn: the bland headshot with a slightly stiff smile; a boilerplate description of RingCentral, the software company where she says she works; and a brief job history. She claims to have an undergraduate business degree from New York University and gives a generic list of interests: CNN, Unilever, Amazon, philanthropist Melinda French Gates.
But there were oddities in the photo: the single earring and strange hair, the placement of her eyes, the blurry background. Alone, any of these clues might be explained away, but together, they aroused DiResta's suspicions.
Plus, this thread is worth scrolling.
In 1994, Jeff Bezos famously spotted a stat that made him leave his high-paying PE job to start Amazon:
— Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) 12:05 AM ∙ Mar 8, 2022
💡 The Internet was growing 2300% per year.
What are the generation-defining stats of today?
I'll post a few to kick things off...
💩 Cool shit
The Brutalist Report - A text only feed of tech news.
Pure CSS Mario 64 - If you grew up playing Super Mario 64, you’ll also enjoy this fun little CSS demo.
YSFlight - A seemingly limitless free flight simulator.
FreezingCam - A tool to freeze your webcam.
Marginalia Search - An alternate search engine designed to find non-commercial content.
#100CoolWebMoments - To celebrate Chrome 100, the Chrome team put together this fun history tour through the web.
I Heard It In A Magazine - This “destination for sound culture and the listening-obsessed” has a unique navigation style.
CryptoMarry - Put your wedding on the blockchain, because why not? I hope this isn’t real.
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