{"id":1733,"date":"2018-07-26T17:55:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T00:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=1733"},"modified":"2018-07-26T20:22:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T03:22:31","slug":"how-a-beethoven-tweet-broke-our-twitter-feed-and-other-lessons-about-social-media-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2018\/07\/how-a-beethoven-tweet-broke-our-twitter-feed-and-other-lessons-about-social-media-today.html","title":{"rendered":"How a Beethoven Tweet Broke Our Twitter Feed (And Other Lessons About Social Media Today)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/ludwig-van-beethoven-wax-museum-930412\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1754 size-medium\" title=\"Pixabay\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pianist-930412_640.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pianist-930412_640.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pianist-930412_640.jpg?w=480&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>A few weeks ago we posted a link in ArtsJournal to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/entertainment\/music\/opinion\/2018\/06\/26\/ode-to-joy-has-an-odious-history-lets-give-beethovens-most-overplayed-symphony-a-rest.html\">a piece in the Toronto Star<\/a> under the admittedly provocative headline: &#8220;Time To Retire Beethoven&#8217;s Ninth?&#8221; In the piece, John Terauds, who used to be the Star&#8217;s staff classical music critic, suggested it might be time to put away the Ninth Symphony for a while.<\/p>\n<p>Why? In his words:<\/p>\n<div class=\"trackContent-8 blur_effect hideRegistration\" data-reactid=\"151\">\n<blockquote><p>We have the 19th-century ideal of strength in unity \u2014 expressed in the \u201cOde to Joy\u201d \u2014 scraping up uneasily against a 21st-century ideal of strength in diversity. The change in perspective makes some people afraid and angry. It makes others hopeful and optimistic. Until we see whether we can achieve a paradigm shift or whether we fall back into something like the genocidal chaos of the mid-20th century, I think we should press pause on Beethoven\u2019s Ninth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Heretical? Sure &#8211; The Star ran it under a note that explained that this was the inaugural piece of a new series called<em> The Heretic<\/em> in which critics would &#8220;express a wildly unpopular opinion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">No kidding. Within a day, some 120,000 people had viewed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ArtsJournalNews\/status\/1012462899183407105\">our tweet<\/a> linking the piece. And thousands and thousands responded. A few examples:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" style=\"text-align: center;\">I&#8217;d ask what the hell is wrong with you, but I&#8217;m pretty sure I don&#8217;t have the time for what would be an extraordinarily long list.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014 Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/physicsgeek\/status\/1012697344528343040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Show me on this doll where Beethoven\u2019s 9th hurt you <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ptla8fCqaG\">pic.twitter.com\/ptla8fCqaG<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014 Lt. Aldo Raine (@DLMooney69) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DLMooney69\/status\/1012498536477446145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Beethoven&#8217;s 9th is about 200 years old and yet is still more relevant than print journalism, especially your &#8220;journalistic&#8221; rag. &#x1f61c;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014 David Germain (@d_m_g_daffy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/d_m_g_daffy\/status\/1012491906150875136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" style=\"text-align: center;\">LOL<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Arts Journal News = <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xlSSzO6hsf\">pic.twitter.com\/xlSSzO6hsf<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014 Cash Tumbles (@CashTumbles) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CashTumbles\/status\/1012704612799823873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>You get the idea. There were a few thoughtful replies, but very few. Twitter stats show that fewer than 7000 &#8211; about five percent of those who saw the tweet actually clicked through to the story to read it. While Terauds&#8217; piece was intended to be controversial, he was making a subtle argument: Powerful art defines paradigms, and perhaps because the Ninth is so powerful, we have been stuck in its paradigm and ought to examine why. One might argue with the premise or conclusion, but it&#8217;s a thoughtful question worth entertaining, posed by someone who has spent a lot of time listening to and writing about the music.<\/p>\n<p>The Twitter hordes were utterly uninterested in engaging with the argument but overjoyed to be able to hate on something.<\/p>\n<p>So 120,000 Twitter followers are rabid Beethoven defenders, outraged someone would take away their beloved music? Unlikely. We post heretical pieces on ArtsJournal almost every day &#8211; many far more outrageous than this, and they don&#8217;t go viral or provoke such reaction. So why this?<\/p>\n<p>The drug is in the hating. Beethoven is a cultural icon at the pinnacle of Western Civilization. He transcends music, a seemingly unassailable symbol of achievement in all of human history. It doesn&#8217;t matter if you like to listen to Beethoven or not. To dispute Beethoven is to threaten the fundamental values the Twitter hordes believe are universal. Another example of elites trying to tear down core beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>But the outrage also speaks to something more. Two things, actually:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>When we feel powerless, when we feel threatened and unable to be heard in &#8220;real&#8221; life, we lash out reflexively &#8211; us versus them. Who&#8217;s the them? People in our lives seen and unseen who have control over us, over the economy, over our politics, over the ways things work, over our culture. We&#8217;re just trying to get along but larger forces beyond our control are keeping us down as others are getting ahead. We have to fight them, to blame them. Who&#8217;s the us? Here&#8217;s the interesting part: they&#8217;re not necessarily people we &#8220;know&#8221; in a traditional sense. They&#8217;re people online who defend a matrix of values or ideas, usually in the shorthand of social media, where the objective is not to be deep but to be clever or cutting or cool. The incisive black-and-white quip gathers the most moss and the viral mob that gathers and retweets your cleverness affirms your value. Cue the dopamine hit. The Twitter mob becomes your tribe, even though you don&#8217;t &#8220;know&#8221; them in a conventional sense. &#8220;Traditional&#8221; values are easy to defend &#8211; they can be vague and idealized, and sometimes not even real, but they can define a &#8220;better&#8221; time, when things supposedly worked. Your community is this nostalgic time rather than the reality of the people around you. Defending these is fun, and the outrage, the grievance, the bullying, it makes you feel powerful. The drug is so, so easy to tap into, a way to penetrate the numbness of the internet and your daily life.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Social media is designed to promote and reward the reflexive response. The quick one-note hit. Ever notice that the emails you get that require the most thinking about are the ones you respond to last? Social media doesn&#8217;t reward thoughtfulness. But it&#8217;s worse than that. Algorithms are built to make the provocative response more powerful by promoting it. On social media, attention is currency and you don&#8217;t get rewarded with an audience unless you&#8217;re outrageous or simplistic or tribal. We equate popularity with value. So in Twitter terms the Beethoven story is our most valuable post of the year. Is it? Nope, and the viral audience response to the Beethoven tweet is of way less value &#8211; there&#8217;s practically nothing useful in the &#8220;discussion&#8221; that Twitter provoked. And that&#8217;s a problem. If Twitter is set up to encourage and reward bad behavior, that&#8217;s what it will get. And this is just Beethoven.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There&#8217;s a backlash building against social media right now. I think it&#8217;s because the algorithms that determine the value of tweets or likes are misaligned with the value people are looking for.\u00a0 Ultimately, if more and more thoughtful people determine that Twitter or Facebook or Instagram aren&#8217;t rewarding them with value, they&#8217;ll leave. For years, most online publications ran comments under their stories. Over time most comments sections turned into a cesspool of LCD (lowest common denominator) behavior, and many publications have dropped comments. Where comment sections are thriving (<em>The New York Times<\/em>, for example) it&#8217;s because editors curate, organize and reward thoughtful response. In effect, they changed the algorithm that determined what got traction and what didn&#8217;t even make it to the site. Readers see that value.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, much social media is a toxic scourge, one that has damaged our politics and coarsened public discourse. Until the platforms figure out how to radically reconfigure algorithms so they reward better behavior and filter the bad, they&#8217;re going to continue being toxic. And ultimately their massive communities will decline and die &#8211; colony collapse. Both Facebook and Twitter are losing significant numbers of users for the first time, and they&#8217;re fast approaching a tipping point. It&#8217;s in their interest to figure this out soon. If they don&#8217;t, we will continue to suffer in the short term. But they will ultimately pay the price longterm. MySpace anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago we posted a link in ArtsJournal to a piece in the Toronto Star under the admittedly provocative headline: &#8220;Time To Retire Beethoven&#8217;s Ninth?&#8221; In the piece, John Terauds, who used to be the Star&#8217;s staff classical music critic, suggested it might be time to put away the Ninth Symphony for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-changing-culture","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pianist-930412_640.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-rX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2017\/01\/five-highlight-reads-from-this-weeks-aj-did-originality-steer-the-arts-wrong.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":0},"title":"Five Highlight Reads From This Week&#8217;s AJ: Did Originality Steer The Arts Wrong?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week: The Trump era is a challenge to America's arts institutions... Artificial intelligence is teaching us how to better-design concert halls... How originality has failed art... The Metropolitans Museum and Opera are struggling... Is Canada becoming the first \"post-nation\" state? The Role Of Arts Institutions In The Era Of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weekly AJ Top Stories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/canada.jpg?fit=600%2C278&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/canada.jpg?fit=600%2C278&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/canada.jpg?fit=600%2C278&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":947,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/08\/is-opera-the-real-21st-century-art-form.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":1},"title":"Is Opera The Real 21st Century Art Form?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"August 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A 2015 survey\u00a0by blogger Mae Mai reported that\u00a0260 new opera companies started since 2000 in the United States. There are 80 opera companies now working in New York alone. Over the past couple months the New York Opera Fest showcased many of the New York companies.\u00a0For the most part, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;arts &amp; tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"arts &amp; tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":87,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/vote_for_your_favorite_artist.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":2},"title":"Vote for your favorite artist of the 20th Century","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Times of London is running a poll to pick the favorite artist of the 20th Century. \"Readers and visitors were asked to nominate their favourite artists working since 1900 from a list including some of the most influential painters, sculptors, photographers, video and installation artists of the period. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2687,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2024\/01\/how-to-think-about-how-ai-will-change-the-arts.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":3},"title":"How to Think About How AI will Change the Arts?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"At the moment \"how to think about it\" may be the most important place to start.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;arts &amp; tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"arts &amp; tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/violin-1085606_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C585&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/violin-1085606_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C585&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/violin-1085606_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C585&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/violin-1085606_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C585&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3347,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2026\/04\/aj-chronicles-the-excellence-problem-and-why-it-matters.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":4},"title":"AJ Chronicles: The Excellence Problem and Why it Matters","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't mean to be pedantic, but I think defining what we mean by excellence really matters if we're going to figure out the place of AI in creativity. Four stories this week suggest layers to this debate:","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AJ Chronicles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AJ Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/aj-chronicles"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/igorshubin-white-mountains-4983648-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C507&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/igorshubin-white-mountains-4983648-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C507&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/igorshubin-white-mountains-4983648-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C507&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/igorshubin-white-mountains-4983648-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C507&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/igorshubin-white-mountains-4983648-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C507&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2014\/01\/welcoming-a-new-aj-blogger-whose-art-is-the-audience.html","url_meta":{"origin":1733,"position":5},"title":"Welcoming A New AJ Blogger: Art of the audience","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm very pleased to welcome a new blogger to ArtsJournal today. Lynne Conner will be writing the blog We the Audience, a blog about the relationships between artists and audiences. Lynne is a\u00a0professor in the theatre and dance department at Colby College in Maine, where she directs plays and teaches\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/conner.jpg?fit=392%2C582&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1763,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions\/1763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}