Smashgate: The Only Thing Separating Phoebe and David is 280 Characters
We could all learn a lesson or two by avoiding the hot take.
In his book “Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now,” the technologist, scholar, and humanist Jaron Lanier offers ten reasons for trying the unthinkable and taking a luddite’s approach to connecting online — just don’t do it.
He strikes a tenor similar to the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma by citing the sinister power of Facebook, Twitter, and Google algorithms while arguing that social networks conversely destroy our capacity for empathy, undermine truth, and render what we have to say effectively meaningless. Perhaps none of Lanier’s statements is quite so unceremonious and effective as Argument #3: “SOCIAL MEDIA IS MAKING YOU INTO AN ASSHOLE.”
During a February SNL appearance, indie rock musician Phoebe Bridgers performed two songs from her lauded sophomore album Punisher whose arrival in 2020 was largely overshadowed by a global pandemic. During the slow-burn climax of “I Know the End,” Bridgers did something unexpected, though not unprecedented. She smashed her guitar.
Or rather, she tried to smash it. After a half-dozen or so full swings at a stage monitor, sparks flew and smoke billowed. But the ebony…
