The News

We’re not going to scroll our way out of this

I’m going to do the Sizzle a little bit differently today.

The first thing I saw when I woke up this morning was a notification that Charlie Kirk had been shot. I scrolled for a few minutes, then went downstairs to my computer. I started streaming US cable news, checking news websites while dual screening with Bluesky and yes the disgusting X/Twitter platform.

Even with the chyrons and television personalities vying for my attention, I found myself drawn to my social media feeds — particularly X/Twitter. I saw Elon Musk call his political opponents “the Party of Murder” on his social media platform. I saw ordinary shitposters memeing about the death. I saw ostensibly non-political Silicon Valley posters calling for revenge against the Left. I saw videos of a guy being arrested, calling him a “boomer leftist” who was responsible for the attack, who was later released because he wasn’t the shooter. Then I saw that Kirk had died.

I felt myself scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling. I didn’t consciously clock this at the time, but when I thinking about it in the shower later on, I realised I was thinking that maybe the next refresh and its next batch of posts — maybe they would give me some kind of comfort. Maybe I’d see some news, like who was to blame for the attack. Maybe I’d see someone call for peace and patience. Maybe I’d see stuff that was completely unrelated to the assassination, calls for revenge and war, that would make me forget it all.

I’m skeptical of pronouncements that technology is to blame for everything that’s going wrong. In fact, I just wrote a book about conspiracy theories which argues against the common perception of a growing number of social media-brainwashed conspiracy theorists. (Research suggests it’s about the same amount of people, or maybe even a fraction fewer, believe in conspiracy theories nowadays). Just like conspiracy theories have been a constant part of human history, so too has been the urge to lament about the damage caused by the new thing: newspapers, talk radio, TV, the internet, social media etc.

But that doesn’t mean technology hasn’t changed things — sometimes for the worse. Maybe more people aren’t into conspiracy theories or extremist ideologies, but those people who are inclined to them now have access to more extreme content than ever before. They’re able to connect with one another. Share ideas. Spur each other on. Even if the number of people who believed crazy things hasn’t changed, access to a algorithmic engine constantly producing a stream of fear and rage-inducing content is going to change how those people — us — react.

I also think the technology that we’ve built our world around is nudging us all towards certain behaviours and views of the world. The TikTokification of all social media has created this strange dynamic: everyone is in their own, hyper-personalised information bubble where people’s best and worst moments are served up as “content” to be consumed. At the same time, all of these bubbles are geared to feed us the most extreme content: whatever makes us laugh, rage, cry, feel desire or fear.

There’s a lot of reasons to feel bad recently. War. Genocide. Neo-Nazis. But I’ve been feeling particularly shit for the last week because of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s refusal to apologise for saying on TV that the government is intentionally bringing in Indian immigrants to change the electorate and win elections.

As many of you know, I have a wife who is Indian-Australian. We have a young daughter who I imagine one day will identify as Indian, too.

Price’s claim came out of left field for many people, but not for me. I am a witness to the journey of this idea going from the fringes of the internet until it made its way into the mouth of a mainstream politician who some predict could one day be Prime Minister.

Whether Price knows the name and the history of this idea or not, it’s my opinion that this is a version of the Great Replacement Theory. That’s the same idea that motivated an Australian to kill 51 Muslims. And I watched this idea bubble until it was on the front of newspapers where it was discussed as a “political gaffe” and “strategic error”, and not something that is wrong and disgusting to say.

There have always been racists in the mainstream. There have always been cranks. But my fear is that the way that our systems work — technology changing the way people view the world, leading to small pockets of people becoming more and more radical, leading to political parties with dwindling memberships being more beholden to those radicalised people — means there’s powerful people who believe that their weird, fringe beliefs are normal and just, and that the rest of us won’t be able to reject them. Or maybe, we can’t.

The technology that we use plays a role in that. It’s allowing the amplification and mainstreaming of hateful ideas. It’s diverting our attention from what matters to what’s loudest. It’s creating an illusion of a world that fulfils our worst desires. I know these things because I feel it in myself when I use these platforms.

It doesn’t have to be like that. We don’t have to choose to go on X. We don’t have to trust algorithms to decide what we see about the world. We don’t have to pay attention to people or things or viewpoints because other people’s technology wants us to. We already have capability and the means to choose and create spaces that aren’t like this.

The Sizzle is about how tech can create a better world. It’s not explicit, but everything I write is through the lens of: is this information about the news and technology useful to you, the reader, in your quest to live a good life? The Sizzle’s online spaces are an attempt to put some of those ideas into practice.

I refuse to give up believing that tech can help us build a better world. But I know we can’t be complacent and assume that it’ll build itself. We need to claw and grasp and fight for it. The alternative is to just keep scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, just looking for hope. Somehow, I don’t think my Twitter feed is where I’ll find the hope I’m looking for.

You can email me about this or anything. Normal Sizzle will be back tomorrow.

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The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.