Big switch

You know the world has flipped when the default assumption, the side that doesn’t need explaining, has turned upside down.

From an article about a young reporter who has abandoned print for TikTok:

But besides that, I kind of let the conversation evolve. There are a lot of people who love to comment on TikTok. They never post on TikTok, but they love to comment. And so I do find it to be an interesting window into how people are taking in information, what they find interesting about my work or my stories and where their brain is going next. That can inform my future reporting as well.

Before 2010, writers and readers were disjunct groups. Writers were paid to write. Readers paid the newspaper or bookstore to read what writers wrote. Writers were unhappy when readers got too mouthy.

Now the default is EVERYONE WRITES. A professional writer is suspicious of people who don’t write.

Incidentally, this default is a GIANT HUMONGOUS SUPERSIZE DISPROOF of the arrogant assholes who huff and puff about an illiterate society. A world where everyone writes all the time is the MOST LITERATE WORLD IN HISTORY. No previous era is remotely comparable.