WTF? (Bemused)

Joseph Reagle

Our question(s)

  • WTF? Why do people post the stupid things they do?
  • How should we interpret and understand comments and hashtags?

Bemused

1. bewildered or confused
2. lost in thought; preoccupied
3. mildly amused, especially in a detached way (Dictionary.com)

Concepts

  • early-mover advantages (“first”, preferential attachment, trending)
  • information asymmetry (reviews)
  • semantics (“4/5 stars, save my son’s life”)
  • choice, Fredkin’s paradox, & paradox of choice
  • Implicit Association Test (IAT)
  • context (collapse & hypotextual)

What is “comment”?

  • reactive
  • asynchronous
  • short
  • inherently contextual

Early-movers

First comment badge

  • Shritha: why “first”?
  • Juliet: TikTok’s algorithm orders comments by relevance (losing context?)

Preferential attachment, anchoring, & herding

  • Ryan: preferential attachment and “blitzscaling”

e.g., Thunderclap

Semantics

11 is one louder

How much does it hurt?

Stomach pain: “I’m an 8 again”

Universal Pain Scale

Universal Pain Assessment
  • Kelli: “8” for a smashed finger

Replacing stars

  • Brooke: mom’s Airbnb, expectations and collapsed dimensions
  • Alana: does age affect how people evaluate comment sections?

Choice

Fredkin’s paradox

Fredkin in politics

Paradox of choice

Bias

Hunger games

IAT explained

IAT controversy

  • “automatic preference for …”
    • may not mean bias, could mean salience
    • only weakly predictive of some behavior; no better than other measures
    • changes with familiarity with test; can be faked

You can demo it by here, and quickly skip survey questions: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Where else might we such differences online??

Oops & Hacked

Weiner’s lewd picture

Questions

  • Have you seen other examples of “oops”?

Hypotextual

#CancelCorbert

Satire – out of context?

  • Owen: a Dutch athlete’s use of orangutan emoji

What bemuses you??

  • Is there a social/cultural phenomenon that amuses/confuses/bemuses you?
  • Can others offer an explanation?

Conclusion

Wrap up

  • Create two high-order questions about:
    • early-mover advantages (“first”, preferential attachment, trending)
    • information asymmetry (reviews)
    • semantics (“4/5 stars, save my son’s life”)
    • choice, Fredkin’s paradox, & paradox of choice
    • Implicit Association Test (IAT)
    • context (collapse & hypotextual)