I guess there was some video that went viral on multiple platforms showing how supposedly bad things are in Japan these days. Graffiti, poverty, piled-up trash, etc. Chris Broad, a Japan-based...
I guess there was some video that went viral on multiple platforms showing how supposedly bad things are in Japan these days. Graffiti, poverty, piled-up trash, etc. Chris Broad, a Japan-based British content creator who runs the channel "Abroad in Japan" and has lived in Japan for over a decade, decided to review and respond to that video. Basically saying that a lot of it drummed up and over-generalized. Which kinda created some good ol' Youtube beef.
But the reason I'm sharing is less about that and more about his takes on the social media environment. How the algorithms, particularly on short-form content, reward people for what he calls "slop sensationalist content." That's easy to make and gain money and notoriety, while at the same time spreading ragebait and misinformation. And how that can fuel racism and other -isms. I think we all know that already, but just thought it was interesting to hear from the perspective of a content creator themselves. One who produces more "traditional," longer-form content.
Also apologies if ~tech isn't the right place for this. Struggled a bit to figure out the best place for it.
Thank you for sharing and providing the additional context. I'd originally glossed over this video when it came up via the Youtube home page, for the very reason the title / thumb nail made me...
Thank you for sharing and providing the additional context. I'd originally glossed over this video when it came up via the Youtube home page, for the very reason the title / thumb nail made me think it was the type of video it was actually responding to.
I guess that also ties in to part of the problem of it's easier to spread misinformation than corrections, having no prior context of the video that was being replied to, it's easy to make an incorrect assumption on the type of video that it was.
Thank you for sharing this. The creator is very good at showing the contrast of reality vs 'ragebait' (first time I've heard that term but it makes sense) and giving a good under-the-hood look at...
Thank you for sharing this. The creator is very good at showing the contrast of reality vs 'ragebait' (first time I've heard that term but it makes sense) and giving a good under-the-hood look at some of the reasons it is so prolific.
We really need more healthy algorithms... no, we really need meaningful and effective regulation oriented towards the public good in the tech sector.
This type of propaganda is rampant in Japanese social media as well. I don't live in Japan but speak Japanese fluently and watch Japanese content out of interest. Almost every time I talk to a...
This type of propaganda is rampant in Japanese social media as well. I don't live in Japan but speak Japanese fluently and watch Japanese content out of interest. Almost every time I talk to a Japanese person about anything to do with the state of the country, it almost always invariably leads to how immigration and tourism (usually Chinese/Korean) is destroying Japan in some capacity (I almost always expect to hear something about Chinese tourists kicking deers in Nara or something).
Japanalysis, another Japan-centric youtube creator, did a good video recently about one specific political personality that's spreading this kind of misinformation within the Japanese public that I highly recommend you watch, since most English speakers never have contact with that side of the internet due to the language barrier.
All this to say this type of content affects both people watching from outside and people watching from the inside. It warps reality.
In the end, social media has created the breeding ground for this type of rampant misinformation and is eroding what little is left of real reporting. People are much more engaged with a YouTube short or a Facebook headline than they are with a detailed analysis of a situation. It's sad.
My general impression from the few English-language articles I see is that, like lots of countries have before, Japan is struggling a bit with overtourism now, due to exchange rates? But...
My general impression from the few English-language articles I see is that, like lots of countries have before, Japan is struggling a bit with overtourism now, due to exchange rates? But apparently this is exaggerated?
In simplified terms, yes. Obviously overtourism is an issue with the steadily decreasing value of the yen. I myself took advantage of this this past spring to go there for considerably cheaper...
In simplified terms, yes.
Obviously overtourism is an issue with the steadily decreasing value of the yen. I myself took advantage of this this past spring to go there for considerably cheaper than my last trip a couple years back.
But the notion that an increasing number of tourists only go to Japan to ruin it is also overly exaggerated due to social media cherry picking and misinformation.
Every country with lots of tourism will always have a small minority of said tourists that misbehaves, and the absolute number of those goes up the more tourists you have, but the percentages generally don't without any other factors being at play. Of course, it's unfortunate that anyone misbehaves, but it is something you can manage, not an excuse to go balls to the wall anti immigration like Japan is doing right now (which is a particularly bad move in Japan's case because their population is shrinking very rapidly and nobody wants to have children under the Japanese work system).
My experience with Japanese Twitter in particular is that Chinese people are vilified to such an insane degree you'd think it's 19th century USA with black people. I'm talking full on caricature drawings, sometimes doctored or heavily manipulated photos, along with the most bombastic headlines, as if Chinese citizens are there to invade Japan and replace Japanese people. This type of rhetoric is what's causing far right parties like Sanseito to rise more and more in the polls, to the point where they've gained influence with the ruling liberal democratic party and their new PM is taking much stronger far-right stances.
I made a joke with a friend that Westerners haven't experienced racism in the modern world until they've asked a Japanese person about Chinese people. Obviously this is overly exaggerated and purely anecdotal, but there seems to be an ever-growing hateful, xenophobic vitriol that you can find in Japanese online spaces, it's just isolated by the language barrier so most people outside of Japan don't come across it.
It just goes to show that literally no country is immune from the social media propaganda machine.
And frightening, because how do you fix short attention spans and the desire for simple answers to complex problems? Especially when it's extremely financially rewarding to feed them at scale.
And frightening, because how do you fix short attention spans and the desire for simple answers to complex problems? Especially when it's extremely financially rewarding to feed them at scale.
I guess there was some video that went viral on multiple platforms showing how supposedly bad things are in Japan these days. Graffiti, poverty, piled-up trash, etc. Chris Broad, a Japan-based British content creator who runs the channel "Abroad in Japan" and has lived in Japan for over a decade, decided to review and respond to that video. Basically saying that a lot of it drummed up and over-generalized. Which kinda created some good ol' Youtube beef.
But the reason I'm sharing is less about that and more about his takes on the social media environment. How the algorithms, particularly on short-form content, reward people for what he calls "slop sensationalist content." That's easy to make and gain money and notoriety, while at the same time spreading ragebait and misinformation. And how that can fuel racism and other -isms. I think we all know that already, but just thought it was interesting to hear from the perspective of a content creator themselves. One who produces more "traditional," longer-form content.
Also apologies if ~tech isn't the right place for this. Struggled a bit to figure out the best place for it.
Thank you for sharing and providing the additional context. I'd originally glossed over this video when it came up via the Youtube home page, for the very reason the title / thumb nail made me think it was the type of video it was actually responding to.
I guess that also ties in to part of the problem of it's easier to spread misinformation than corrections, having no prior context of the video that was being replied to, it's easy to make an incorrect assumption on the type of video that it was.
Thank you for sharing this. The creator is very good at showing the contrast of reality vs 'ragebait' (first time I've heard that term but it makes sense) and giving a good under-the-hood look at some of the reasons it is so prolific.
We really need more healthy algorithms... no, we really need meaningful and effective regulation oriented towards the public good in the tech sector.
"We used to program the algorithms, now they're programming us"
This type of propaganda is rampant in Japanese social media as well. I don't live in Japan but speak Japanese fluently and watch Japanese content out of interest. Almost every time I talk to a Japanese person about anything to do with the state of the country, it almost always invariably leads to how immigration and tourism (usually Chinese/Korean) is destroying Japan in some capacity (I almost always expect to hear something about Chinese tourists kicking deers in Nara or something).
Japanalysis, another Japan-centric youtube creator, did a good video recently about one specific political personality that's spreading this kind of misinformation within the Japanese public that I highly recommend you watch, since most English speakers never have contact with that side of the internet due to the language barrier.
All this to say this type of content affects both people watching from outside and people watching from the inside. It warps reality.
In the end, social media has created the breeding ground for this type of rampant misinformation and is eroding what little is left of real reporting. People are much more engaged with a YouTube short or a Facebook headline than they are with a detailed analysis of a situation. It's sad.
My general impression from the few English-language articles I see is that, like lots of countries have before, Japan is struggling a bit with overtourism now, due to exchange rates? But apparently this is exaggerated?
In simplified terms, yes.
Obviously overtourism is an issue with the steadily decreasing value of the yen. I myself took advantage of this this past spring to go there for considerably cheaper than my last trip a couple years back.
But the notion that an increasing number of tourists only go to Japan to ruin it is also overly exaggerated due to social media cherry picking and misinformation.
Every country with lots of tourism will always have a small minority of said tourists that misbehaves, and the absolute number of those goes up the more tourists you have, but the percentages generally don't without any other factors being at play. Of course, it's unfortunate that anyone misbehaves, but it is something you can manage, not an excuse to go balls to the wall anti immigration like Japan is doing right now (which is a particularly bad move in Japan's case because their population is shrinking very rapidly and nobody wants to have children under the Japanese work system).
My experience with Japanese Twitter in particular is that Chinese people are vilified to such an insane degree you'd think it's 19th century USA with black people. I'm talking full on caricature drawings, sometimes doctored or heavily manipulated photos, along with the most bombastic headlines, as if Chinese citizens are there to invade Japan and replace Japanese people. This type of rhetoric is what's causing far right parties like Sanseito to rise more and more in the polls, to the point where they've gained influence with the ruling liberal democratic party and their new PM is taking much stronger far-right stances.
I made a joke with a friend that Westerners haven't experienced racism in the modern world until they've asked a Japanese person about Chinese people. Obviously this is overly exaggerated and purely anecdotal, but there seems to be an ever-growing hateful, xenophobic vitriol that you can find in Japanese online spaces, it's just isolated by the language barrier so most people outside of Japan don't come across it.
It just goes to show that literally no country is immune from the social media propaganda machine.
Yeah it was a brainfart and I fixed it after re-reading my comment. My bad.
Oh good I'll delete mine because I felt so rude making the correction!
And frightening, because how do you fix short attention spans and the desire for simple answers to complex problems? Especially when it's extremely financially rewarding to feed them at scale.
As an aside his book Abroad in Japan is a fun easy read with a nice slice of life flavour. I would recommend it!