Don't like clickbait? Don't click
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0:00 - 0:02So recently,
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0:02 - 0:05some white guys and some black women
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0:05 - 0:08swapped Twitter avatars, or pictures online.
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0:08 - 0:09They didn't change their content,
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0:09 - 0:11they kept tweeting the same as usual,
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0:11 - 0:14but suddenly, the white guys noticed
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0:14 - 0:16they were getting called the n-word all the time
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0:16 - 0:18and they were getting the worst kind of online abuse,
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0:18 - 0:21whereas the black women all of a sudden
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0:21 - 0:24noticed things got a lot more pleasant for them.
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0:24 - 0:26Now, if you're my five-year-old,
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0:26 - 0:29your Internet consists mostly of puppies and fairies
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0:29 - 0:31and occasionally fairies riding puppies.
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0:31 - 0:34That's a thing. Google it.
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0:34 - 0:36But the rest of us know that the Internet
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0:36 - 0:39can be a really ugly place.
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0:39 - 0:42I'm not talking about the kind of colorful debates
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0:42 - 0:44that I think are healthy for our democracy.
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0:44 - 0:48I'm talking about nasty personal attacks.
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0:48 - 0:50Maybe it's happened to you, but it's at least
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0:50 - 0:53twice as likely to happen, and be worse,
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0:53 - 0:55if you're a woman, a person of color, or gay,
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0:55 - 0:57or more than one at the same time.
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0:57 - 0:59In fact, just as I was writing this talk,
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0:59 - 1:02I found a Twitter account called @SallyKohnSucks.
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1:04 - 1:07The bio says that I'm a
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1:07 - 1:11"man-hater and a bull dyke and the only
thing I've ever accomplished with my career -
1:11 - 1:13is spreading my perverse sexuality."
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1:13 - 1:15Which, incidentally, is only a third correct.
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1:15 - 1:19I mean, lies! (Laughter)
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1:21 - 1:23But seriously, we all say we hate this crap.
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1:23 - 1:25The question is whether you're willing to make
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1:25 - 1:28a personal sacrifice to change it.
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1:28 - 1:30I don't mean giving up the Internet.
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1:30 - 1:32I mean changing the way you click,
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1:32 - 1:35because clicking is a public act.
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1:35 - 1:37It's no longer the case
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1:37 - 1:39that a few powerful elites control all the media
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1:39 - 1:41and the rest of us are just passive receivers.
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1:41 - 1:44Increasingly, we're all the media.
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1:44 - 1:47I used to think, oh, okay, I get dressed up,
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1:47 - 1:49I put on a lot of makeup,
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1:49 - 1:51I go on television, I talk about the news.
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1:51 - 1:54That is a public act of making media.
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1:54 - 1:57And then I go home and I browse the web
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1:57 - 1:58and I'm reading Twitter,
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1:58 - 2:00and that's a private act of consuming media.
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2:00 - 2:02I mean, of course it is. I'm in my pajamas.
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2:02 - 2:04Wrong.
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2:04 - 2:06Everything we blog, everything we Tweet,
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2:06 - 2:10and everything we click
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2:10 - 2:13is a public act of making media.
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2:13 - 2:14We are the new editors.
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2:14 - 2:16We decide what gets attention
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2:16 - 2:19based on what we give our attention to.
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2:19 - 2:20That's how the media works now.
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2:20 - 2:23There's all these hidden algorithms that decide
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2:23 - 2:25what you see more of and what we all see more of
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2:25 - 2:27based on what you click on,
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2:27 - 2:31and that in turn shapes our whole culture.
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2:31 - 2:33Over three out of five Americans think we have
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2:33 - 2:37a major incivility problem in our country right now,
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2:37 - 2:39but I'm going to guess that at least three out of five
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2:39 - 2:43Americans are clicking on the same insult-oriented,
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2:43 - 2:45rumor-mongering trash that feeds
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2:45 - 2:48the nastiest impulses in our society.
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2:48 - 2:52In an increasingly noisy media landscape,
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2:52 - 2:55the incentive is to make more noise to be heard,
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2:55 - 2:58and that tyranny of the loud
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2:58 - 3:01encourages the tyranny of the nasty.
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3:01 - 3:04It does not have to be that way.
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3:04 - 3:06It does not.
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3:06 - 3:09We can change the incentive.
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3:09 - 3:10For starters, there are two things we can all do.
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3:10 - 3:14First, don't just stand by the sidelines
when you see someone getting hurt. -
3:14 - 3:18If someone is being abused online, do something.
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3:18 - 3:20Be a hero. This is your chance.
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3:20 - 3:23Speak up. Speak out. Be a good person.
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3:23 - 3:25Drown out the negative with the positive.
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3:25 - 3:28And second, we've got to stop clicking
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3:28 - 3:31on the lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeding
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3:31 - 3:32linkbait.
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3:32 - 3:36If you don't like the 24/7 all Kardashian
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3:36 - 3:37all the time programming,
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3:37 - 3:39you've got to stop clicking on the stories
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3:39 - 3:43about Kim Kardashian's sideboob.
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3:43 - 3:46I know you do it. (Applause)
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3:46 - 3:48You too, apparently.
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3:48 - 3:49I mean, really, same example:
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3:49 - 3:51if you don't like politicians calling each other names,
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3:51 - 3:53stop clicking on the stories
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3:53 - 3:56about what one guy in one party called
the other guy in the other party. -
3:56 - 3:59Clicking on a train wreck just pours gasoline on it.
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3:59 - 4:01It makes it worse, the fire spreads.
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4:01 - 4:05Our whole culture gets burned.
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4:05 - 4:08If what gets the most clicks wins,
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4:08 - 4:11then we have to start shaping the world we want
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4:11 - 4:13with our clicks,
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4:13 - 4:17because clicking is a public act.
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4:17 - 4:19So click responsibly. Thank you.
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4:19 - 4:23(Applause)
- Title:
- Don't like clickbait? Don't click
- Speaker:
- Sally Kohn
- Description:
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Doesn't it seem like a lot of online news sites have moved beyond reporting the news to openly inciting your outrage (and your page views)? News analyst Sally Kohn suggests — don't engage with news that looks like it just wants to make you mad. Instead, give your precious clicks to the news sites you truly trust.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 04:36
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Don't like clickbait? Don't click |