Let's Read; Traffic and Empathy#
date: September 18, 2022
slug: 5
status: Published
tags: Weekly Report
type: Post
1. A Blackout#
A beautiful day ends with watching this video
Besides the piano, can I learn another instrument?
2. Excerpts#
In an Era of Outrage, Let's Read (New Wave Reflections)#
Today is World Book Day, so let's talk about reading. For reading, the contemporary era is both a good time and an exceptionally bad time.
In terms of acquiring knowledge and information, the contemporary era can be said to be unprecedentedly convenient. The ancients said, "knowledge is wealth," and that was a compliment. In the past, books were hard to come by; you might think anyone could carry five carts of books on the road, but you couldn't even afford the carts. Being qualified to read was a status symbol. This is why the aristocratic politics in China could last for hundreds of years; a significant factor was the monopoly on knowledge, especially classical studies.
Even in modern times, I see in the diary of the famous late Qing county magistrate Du Fengzhi that he extorted wealthy merchants to publish over a hundred volumes of refined rhyme books, which were not rare books but could only be considered good reference books. Bringing them back home to give away was a very prestigious thing. This was a core asset, comparable to buying a house. Today, even the most ordinary books like "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Book of Han" were not easy to obtain in the past. A single volume of "Records of the Grand Historian" cost fifty wen; while not expensive, gathering a complete set would require dozens of volumes, which was not something an average person could afford in ancient times.
Today is certainly a good era, especially with the internet, where books and papers are massively digitized. For those with connections, acquiring knowledge is unprecedentedly convenient and cheap. Unfortunately, there was once a sharing era, but that era has now perished.
The sharing of knowledge and information is increasingly divided by various monopolistic barriers, which is a prominent feature of the deteriorating Chinese internet. Just like not long ago, when the Chinese Academy of Sciences publicly announced it would stop using CNKI, it was both sad and laughable. A tool that should facilitate academic research, a knowledge base, has become a business monopolized and profited from by those with connections. Not only do you have to pay to see your own papers, but if you don't pay, you don't even have the qualification to write papers.
Ironically, this large monopoly has spawned many small businesses.
As many people know, there have emerged numerous unit accounts that can be used long-term for just a few hundred yuan, specifically designed to exploit public resources. Moreover, this black market business has an element of randomness regarding how long you can use it. Anyway, the money isn't much; if it doesn't work out, you can just switch to another one. There's no need to be overly serious; if the account stops working, the store might not even exist anymore. For example, many books have long been organized and scanned electronically, and while they exist in library systems, you can't find them through a simple online search. If you're willing to spend a little money, you can easily buy them, and of course, you can also rely on various acquaintances for help; this is the new way of doing things.
Naturally, the door hasn't been completely shut. If you're willing to put in the effort to gather information, you can still find many state-established databases, such as the National Philosophy and Social Science Literature Center, which is entirely public welfare-oriented and provides a wealth of journal updates. Not to mention, various libraries still exist at this stage, at least for now, for free, but this free access is tightening day by day.
Ultimately, you'll find that in terms of timeliness, completeness, and convenience, the easiest way is still to spend a little money. As you become more accustomed to spending small amounts, you'll notice that the books and papers that were once shared on the internet are disappearing faster and faster. You'll also find that places that lack connections and still engage in free sharing are subject to targeted cyberattacks, inevitably heading towards failure, while those with connections show increasingly obvious signs of harvesting. A typical example is various knowledge platforms and Q&A platforms, which monopolize through apps, forming independent little circles of information. Ultimately, it's about converting traffic into commercial value.
This is not merely an issue of improving copyright awareness; it is a matter of a big player and a small player colluding to share the spoils, destroying the public knowledge domain that should serve the masses.
It should be particularly noted that this situation is not unique to our country. Rather, one could say that in the past few decades, due to the relatively slow development of capital, the monopoly on knowledge in our country is not as severe as in foreign countries. In many developed areas, books, especially those with academic value, are more expensive, while popular entertainment books are relatively cheap, reflecting a certain social orientation. This is not a good thing for respecting knowledge.
The sharing of knowledge itself is a manifestation of social fairness and widespread progress. The rapid updates and easy access to various e-books can certainly be seen as a sign of an imperfect copyright system, but it can also be viewed as a remnant of our past, reflecting the vitality among the people. Initially, they only focused on the sales of new books, which is understandable. Later, they began to strengthen copyright protection, which is also justifiable. Finally, they monopolized and charged for public domain books; how should we interpret this? With economic development and the unrestricted growth of capital, through pervasive erosion and destruction, society is being transformed silently, even transforming people, turning them into a breeding ground for its continuous proliferation.
For a long time, our social atmosphere has had its shortcomings. The prevailing attitude of prioritizing money has greatly polluted our social environment and cultural undertakings. The so-called various cultural trends are mostly based on shallow popular culture, while the promotion of deep reading is minimal. Cultural undertakings often haven't developed before being harvested and destroyed by commercialization. Not to mention, our lagging and stingy construction in the public service sector.
In our cultural industry, the copyright protection system does not respect true originality; rather, it operates around the profits of businesses, resulting in no positive impetus. The result is a situation where, on one hand, the mature public knowledge services left over from foreign countries have not kept up, while on the other hand, the noose of knowledge monopoly and profit-making is tightening, and a large number of bad currencies are driving out good ones. The seemingly prosperous and easily accessible public knowledge domain is becoming increasingly degraded and fragmented.
Fragmented knowledge obtained from encyclopedias and short videos is actually unreliable. However, under the heavy pressure of social life and the influence of popular culture, people are easily satisfied by fast food, consuming their limited energy, and ultimately losing the ability for deep reading. Learning and thinking are replaced by entertainment, which is akin to modern society using cheap sugar and fats to create a seemingly well-fed lower-middle class, which in reality is malnourished.
Acquiring knowledge has become difficult, which is already a burden. Alongside this is the emergence of various information cocoons and information pollution. These two are interconnected. Due to monopolies, people's channels for acquiring knowledge and information are restricted, and through various media platforms, a large amount of low-quality information can bombard them, wrapping them up and ultimately, in conjunction with consumerism, completing the transformation of individuals. A typical example of this is across the strait, where the entire society has formed a strong information cocoon, making it difficult for individuals to maintain basic discernment amidst layers of wrapping. The ultimate result is the formation of individuals who are self-consciously oblivious, being led around like confused sheep. This is precisely a common situation in contemporary Western society.
It is precisely because we are in such a simultaneously joyful and sad era that I believe it is even more worthwhile to advocate for deep reading. This kind of reading is not to satisfy a fast-food curiosity, but to cultivate the ability to analyze problems and delve into topics. Therefore, occasionally reading some academic books is beneficial. They will intuitively show you research methods, not only enhancing your understanding and integration of knowledge but, more importantly, helping you grasp a way of thinking and an attitude.
In our era, compared to mere knowledge, the more important value of reading is likely the shaping and perfecting of one's worldview and methodology. We are currently in an era where the old system is increasingly decaying, the new system has yet to take shape, and various contradictions are prominent. No one can be outside the whirlpool of the times; one cannot be a carefree wanderer.
In such an era, facing the difficulties of reality, from left to right, everyone will propose their own programs, and various platforms will continuously give rise to outrageous claims. Learning without thinking leads to confusion, while thinking without learning leads to danger. These currents of thought rise and fall, emerging endlessly, and those outrageous claims that satisfy passions and confident assertions are often the most attractive and inciting. In such fog and inducement, if one cannot discern correctly, it will lead to confusion and even missteps.
Therefore, in such an era, it is even more important to have a clear perspective, to have one's own stance, and to possess the ability to analyze and think critically. Where does this ability come from? It comes from theoretical works that have been proven by past experiences and have guiding value. This kind of learning is not particularly enjoyable; deep thinking is exhausting, a form of strenuous mental and even physical labor, rather than simple pleasurable satisfaction. But this labor is necessary, just as healthy food nourishes our bodies, healthy thoughts will nourish our spirits.
Thus, in these days, I believe we should read both the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" and current new materials. In the face of current difficulties, we should draw faith and experience from the past. The development and contradictions of our contemporary society are remarkably similar to those faced during the New Democratic Revolution. In the face of tremendous internal and external challenges, we must unite all progressive forces to resolutely fight against seemingly powerful reactionary forces. In this regard, we cannot detach ourselves from the modern backdrop, becoming old antiques clinging to the past. We should pay more attention to the latest theoretical trends both domestically and internationally, as well as new ideas in national governance. Only by organically combining past and present thoughts and guidance can we better see the path forward into the future.
On this day that encourages everyone to read, we should recognize that reading is not merely a simple pleasure; it is also a transmission of human experience and thought. It can be a form of hard work and even a tool for struggle. It is precisely because we have such a tool that we can better navigate the fog of the times and find our direction forward.
Traffic and Empathy (New Wave Reflections)#
On public account platforms, as long as you follow the trends, achieving a reading volume of 100,000 is not difficult (although we don't have many articles in total). For example, if you write about the pandemic, a reasonable critique that analyzes data and logic can also reach 100,000 readings. It doesn't have to be outrageous, but to achieve over 100,000 likes, the reading volume must be at least in the millions, and most of this is related to amplifying panic, anxiety, empathy, anger, and other emotional incitements. Recently, there have been many such articles in the circle of friends.
The last time this scene occurred was probably at the beginning of 2020, during the most severe period of the Wuhan pandemic. Everyone should remember the various 100,000+ articles flooding social media at that time, filled with various pills and incitement, directly leading many netizens to experience political depression under the intense impact of negative emotional information. Many newly emerging public accounts at that time became traffic giants thanks to this type of article (naturally, we couldn't keep up).
Recently, I observed that many articles that have gone viral in the circle of friends have reading volumes exceeding one million, and most of them are still articles that incite emotions. The basic routine is to summarize various chaotic information spread online after the lockdown in Shanghai, whether true or false, and then provide little rational or logical analysis or critique, merely using extreme language to amplify events and employ empathetic rhetoric to connect various essentially unrelated issues, bringing extreme anxiety and anger to the audience. I won't provide specific examples, as they only pollute the eyes and mood.
Just flipping through, many of these accounts are new. The most impressive one I saw yesterday had only published two or three articles, and the latest one was entirely composed of various screenshots of online information, with hardly any text. It entered the ranks of articles with over one million readings simply because of a catchy title. Of course, this article did not receive thousands of rewards like other articles because an article composed entirely of images cannot open original certification and thus cannot receive rewards. Even so, the traffic revenue generated from such an article is still quite considerable.
Just like in many fields where ordinary people cannot grasp the nuances of speculation and gray market exploitation, the self-media field always has many individuals with extremely keen senses and operational skills. The public account platform is different from other content platforms; without a strong recommendation mechanism from the platform or other traffic interventions, a new public account with few followers has a certain probability of its articles becoming 100,000+ in a short time. However, achieving over one million readings in a short time cannot be said to be impossible, but the probability is very low. It must have some very key diffusion nodes, meaning that this phenomenon is more likely to occur within self-media matrices, MCN organizations, and other content accounts, as only they have enough substantial diffusion nodes.
After being presented to a large number of users through diffusion nodes, their carefully designed eye-catching titles and inciting text can then be disseminated multiple times. Individual users have different motivations for sharing and liking certain articles, but from a group perspective, content involving anxiety, panic, empathy, and anger is always the easiest to be shared.
Although this situation exists in various countries in the internet age, compared to other countries, our country has reached a point where quantitative changes have produced qualitative changes in this regard. Our country not only has the largest number of internet users globally but is also uniquely developed in the self-media industry. Moreover, due to historical and cultural reasons, the enthusiasm of ordinary netizens for public discussion and political participation may also be the highest in the world. This has led to an extreme and distorted prosperity in the traffic industry in our country and has resulted in far more complex online public opinion issues than in other countries (of course, this is also related to our country's historical development stage and its position in the global system, which I won't elaborate on here).
For example, readers can imagine, according to the "mountain" and "grain of sand" rhetorical patterns summarized in my article a few days ago, if the situation were similar to that of our self-media industry, how much traffic big accounts would emerge in the past two years from the various bottomless operations and the large number of infections and deaths in Western societies? However, the reality is that this situation has not emerged in large numbers in the West; the head traffic of these topics is still concentrated in media platforms, professionals, and politicians.
Since the large-scale popularization of the internet, the traffic profit mechanism surrounding internet information has far matured compared to the real feedback function that internet information should have on the real world. For example, the concept of empathy, which is one of the most basic and important emotional mechanisms in human society, is often manipulated in the current public opinion arena of the internet, where various deliberately manufactured topics, identity symbols, and logical traps trigger people's fragmented empathy. Such empathy is often at odds with the real lives and class interests of ordinary individuals. As we mentioned above, empathy is one of the easiest means to gather traffic. The phenomenon of fragmented, symbolized empathy in the public opinion arena replacing the genuine empathy of basic social classes is also a sign of the social fragmentation we often discuss. We will discuss the phenomenon of empathy in internet public opinion in separate articles later.
Although I also consider myself part of self-media, I have always been quite averse to obtaining traffic through inciting anxiety, panic, and so on. Although in the traffic era, we also have to work hard on titles every day; we cannot let our hard-written articles go unseen due to title issues, as that would make it impossible to continue. However, we have always been clear about where the boundaries lie. I have always believed that the behavioral standards of self-media, big accounts, and various individuals with a certain level of attention and voice online cannot be the same as those of ordinary netizens, because media equals power, and discourse power in the internet age is a significant form of power, especially for those with many genuine followers who are trusted by some people, as they possess a representative power.
The vast majority of ordinary netizens spend most of their time in their internet lives unnoticed and unobserved. This is a fundamental inequality in the internet age. Even in the algorithm era, theoretically, everyone has the opportunity for high exposure, but that is also fleeting and entirely different from those who have a fixed fan base. Since there is power that ordinary people find difficult to obtain, there must be corresponding responsibilities and constraints. In public opinion, commenting, criticizing, and arguing—even if wrong—are all within the scope of public opinion participation. However, using one's influence to instill anxiety, anger, and panic in ordinary people, creating topics to incite division and conflict for traffic benefits is clearly a behavior that crosses boundaries.
Of course, such matters are actually very difficult to effectively constrain. We can only remind everyone to avoid being surrounded by negative internet information for extended periods in daily life, as this often leads to varying degrees of creative and depressive emotions for ordinary people, which does not help in solving problems or living well. Reducing the intake of fragmented information and engaging in systematic reading and thinking can alleviate anxiety.
After all, traffic belongs to others, but life is one's own.
3. Technical Aspects#
- This week, I restructured the cloud disk, switching from olaindex to alist (the v3.0 update is really useful).
- I built an online bookstore (Talebook) and transferred the books from the library to the cloud.
- ACE Studio officially entered public beta in July, and I just tried it out this week; the results are quite good. I’ll try to adjust a complete song when I have time.
4. Reading Progress (Currently Reading)#
- Reading "Tao Te Ching"
- "Vulgar Latin Tutorial"