Serene Singing

"To my mind, having a care
and concern for others is the
highest of the human qualities."
— Fred Hollows

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@sidherian @CleanAirStars If you find a portable air purifier @sidherian, I'm very, very interested to know. My work keeps talking about getting me back in the office. 😬🦠😷

[Carl Benjamin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @Sargon_of_Akkad]

I'm not sure that the move to rebrand Twitter as X is wise.

Twitter's branding was actually really clever and hit upon a series of positive feelings and changing that might have significant consequences.

The Twitter theme is of birds tweeting at one another in the trees, rendered in a sky-blue logo. This is actually quite pleasant and speaks to nature, which is something value-neutral; everyone likes some aspect of the natural world and couching this platform in those terms is not intrinsically undesirable to anyone. Twitter's style is gender-neutral and has pleasant broad appeal.

It also comes with a kind of ethic. This is a social place where the people come to talk, like birds chirping to one another. It feels friendly and naturally lends itself to the memetic "tweet", it has a sense and logic to it. Twitter, and tweeting, as concepts come packaged with them a set of other cutural styles, expectations, and depth. It is a rich concept which has dimensions beyond merely putting messages on the internet.

By contrast, X is an abstract, stylised logo which doesn't contain any of this aesthetic content. While the new logo is pleasantly rendered, the nature of the rendering itself is very different and creates an aesthetic experience which is tonally contrasting with the previous Twitter theme.

The way X is rendered is futuristic, stylistic, cyberpunk, abstract. It is actually exactly what I would expect from a Generation-X man designing something he thinks would appeal to people, but really it appeals to the kind of person he is.

This is the exact opposite kind of aesthetic that Twitter presents. While Twitter's theme is grounded int he real world, X is grounded in things that don't yet exist. The cultural framing of X is also not pro-social, the cyberpunk future is egoistic and concerned with liberation. Society is becoming more atomised and X seems to be a reflection of that, whereas Twitter was at least a reflection of a community.

I am the same kind of person as Elon: I am a Gen-X man who is technically inclined, I am interested in geek activities/video games, I enjoy satirical memes and I seem to hold the same political values as him. We're both a product of the late 90s, basically, and we were conditioned by sci-fi shows such as X-Files and the Matrix to see the cyber reality as something with a kind of elusive mystique, which is what it seems that he has brought to the theme X.

Personally, I like it. It looks good to me. However, I'm also aware that this is just my personal preference and won't be shared by the people who I would like to remain on the platform because the real magic of Twitter is that the people you don't agree with are also here. That's why the Twitter spin-offs didn't work, because the opponents aren't there; no dialectic can occur because you need the other person for it to happen.

If Twitter adopts a tech-bro aesthetic, it may well turn off people who don't find it as necessary and addictive as before as an unexpected consequence. The platform no longer feels like a neutral space which has universal natural appeal, it may feel like it is crafted for a specific kind of person. This naturally dissuades others, and it may be that they simply just lose interest and don't feel at home like they used to.

As I said, I like these things, but I think there may be undesirable results which may show that, in the long run, it was unwise. Personally, I probably would have done the same thing as Meta in this circumstance, a company which owns Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp etc but allows those platforms to keep their own existing brand and feeling. I think that Elon should have created X as the company that owns Twitter and integrates its functionality whilst allowing it to remain its own brand and keep its legacy aesthetic.

Just my thoughts, I could be wrong, ofc, but this doesn't feel like a great move to me.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@katejuliff @FullyNocturnal Cooker is a good word for it.

It's Australian pragmatism that classifies the purveyors of unhinged online rhetoric as cookers. A bit more pragmatism would be useful in other countries, too.

The term might even lead those people to some self-reflection.
https://t.co/zbTifQd6pp

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@VoxDaFox For the MAGA crowd, even Trump admitted recently that "woke" doesn't mean anything any more.

"I don't like the term "woke", because I hear 'woke, woke, woke,' it's like just a term that half the people can't define it, they don't know what it is."
— Donald Trump, 2023

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@VoxDaFox "non woke therapy" 🤔😄

That's hilarious.
Must be a brand new term in psychiatry! 😂

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@KrauthBen @sally07 @k_eagar @IpseDixitCicero The Aus, NZ and Sweden excess death gradients, turns, and bumps on the OWID chart all make logical sense with respect to COVID events on the ground in each country.

That provides a reassuring feeling that the data is comparable, but I realise that a feeling is not enough.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@KrauthBen @sally07 @k_eagar @IpseDixitCicero That's not very helpful, Ben. Of course I know more than one excess death data source exists.

I presume the Our World In Data is a patchwork of such data sources, leading to problems in comparing between countries. I assume those problems are small, but I could easily be wrong.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@ThornburyRocks As a neurodiverse student, I often felt like I was learning in spite of the system. The activities designed to help students learn were more frequently roadblocks to my learning.

Much better to know the outcomes required and resources available, and find my own way from there.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@ThornburyRocks Being a student mentor rather than staff was very helpful, for (wink, wink) "this works as a shortcut" moments.

A third year sociology student would likely do as well as a mentor, and would also be good practice for them in working with neurodiverse people.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@ThornburyRocks Some ASD/ADHD students greatly benefit from text-to-speech assistive technology, similar to that used for dyslexia. Nothing to do with inability to read, rather it's an alternative pathway when there is a large bulk of reading req'd.

I read-aloud at times for a similar reason.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@ThornburyRocks I loved those 4 sociology subjects, but I'm better at STEM. In my case, those 5 accommodations were about improving my sense of certainty (ASD), and handling my hyperfocus (ADHD) as a scarce resource.

These are common factors for AuDHD support, but each ND student is different.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@KrauthBen @sally07 @k_eagar @IpseDixitCicero Do you have another source you'd like to post?

[Callum Stephen (He/Him) @AutisticCallum_]

You can grow up not suspecting you’re autistic if your family members have the same autistic traits as you, creating an illusion that they’re typical. Autism runs in families, so an autistic child is likely to have at least one autistic parent (who may not know they’re autistic).

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@forestvanslyke Yes, I've never understood swipe left / swipe right, one of the more bizarre human customs.

I understand what people are doing there, but I have no idea why or how they can make so many thin slice judgements in such a short space of time!

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@NavyPrism The laugh is just someone being obnoxious, usually someone who doesn't even have the words to describe what they feel, let alone what they think.

They know that the laugh cannot be removed, so it's also their way of pushing their obnoxiousness past social media blocks.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@KrauthBen @sally07 @k_eagar @IpseDixitCicero In a world where cases, deaths, and even hospitalisations from COVID are fuzzy, excess deaths is a useful way to see which strategies worked, in the broader health burden.

Aus and NZ plot largely parallel excess deaths curves, demonstrating both similarities and differences.

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@KrauthBen @sally07 @k_eagar @IpseDixitCicero NZ was an outstanding performer, actually.

They are the green line trailing below the X-axis, -25 as at 2nd Apr 2023. One time when a low score is a good score. Interesting to note that Australia crossed the X-axis on 5th Dec 2021.

https://t.co/hBbrUvJjDA

[Lesley Russell Wolpe @LRussellWolpe]

University students relying on food banks, skipping meals as cost of living bites.
Hardly conducive to effective learning! https://t.co/ZENXDWKZvn

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@NerylMcphee @therealrukshan That article is worth reading. Seeing your brand of politics playing out in another country is part of the reason why LINO remains a fringe term here in Australia.

It's better for you to know that LINO hunting is about turning the LNP into a minor party and a "small church".

[Serene Singing @SereneSinging]

@NerylMcphee @therealrukshan Some history is useful.

https://t.co/pc5bZ6TEnf
Republican Cannibals: Hunting for RINOs
by John Nichols Aug 2004

“…right-wing operatives have formed "RINO Hunters Clubs," …pouring time, energy and their considerable resources into hunting down the last of the moderates.”