Friday, Apr 10, 2020 • 5min

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Rabbit Hole

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What is the internet doing to us?

Talking about

Speakers

(4)

Kevin Roose

Andy Mills

Larissa Anderson

Transcript

Verified

Kevin Roose

00:01

Hello, California. California, it is New York.

Speaker 2

00:05

Hi, New York.

Larissa Anderson

00:06

Hi.

Speaker 2

00:08

Hi Larissa, who else is there in the room?

Larissa Anderson

00:10

Just us and Cindy...

Kevin Roose

00:11

Cindy's setting up in the other room.

Speaker 4

00:12

Is Julia there by chance?

Julia Longoria

00:14

Hello?

Speaker 2

00:15

Julia, this

QAnon

guy is free to talk anytime.

Julia Longoria

00:19

Oh, great.

00:20

Okay.

Andy Mills

00:21

Alright, so, where do we begin?

00:25

Hey, how's it going, bros? My name is PewDiePie!

Kevin Roose

00:27

So many places we could start.

00:30

What dream or vision do you want to turn into reality?

Kevin Roose

00:34

Let's see.

00:35

So did this stuff track with her spending more time on the

internet

00:39

Yes, absolutely.

Andy Mills

00:40

What if we start with when I first called you last year? Do you remember that?

Kevin Roose

00:46

I remember that you called, and I don't remember all the specifics, but I remember that you were pretty alarmed.

00:54

Unprecedented is how police are describing this attack, scores dead as

two mosques are targeted

during Friday prayers.

Andy Mills

01:05

It was right after that

horrible attack at Christchurch

, New Zealand.

01:10

The gunman stormed in wearing a helmet with a camera on it.

01:14

Moving from room to room killing men, women, and children.

Andy Mills

01:18

This guy had, like, strapped a GoPro on himself and, like, angled it in a way to make his gun look like a video game.

01:26

In the most extraordinary fashion, he live-streamed his attack.

Andy Mills

01:31

And in his manifesto, like, essentially said that he was doing it as like a big real life shitpost.

Kevin Roose

01:38

Right?

01:38

It's now clear he was deeply familiar with far right groups on the

internet

, that's where he posted his so-called manifesto.

Kevin Roose

01:46

This was basically him trolling people. He knew that this would be this horrible tragedy that would become an international news story, and also that like certain people in certain parts of the

internet

would find it really funny.

Andy Mills

02:03

And that whole thing just felt, to me, like it was the strangest and darkest version of this thing that I'm becoming more and more consumed with worry about all the time. Which is like the

internet

is doing something to us that is profoundly changing who we are.

Kevin Roose

02:23

Yeah, yeah.

Andy Mills

02:23

Like I keep finding myself in conversations with friends or family. Or like this one night I was at dinner with this guy who was sharing this, like, very hyperbolic view about something and I remembered, like, as he was sharing it, like, I think I read this almost word-for-word on Twitter today. And I asked him like, "Is this what you really think or is this what you read online? "And he kind of paused and was like, "I don't know. I don't know if I'm paying enough attention to like what the difference between those two things is. "

Kevin Roose

02:56

Yeah.

02:57

I guess I'm wondering like if you think you're still being manipulated.

03:00

This is a question that I have been just obsessing over for the last several years.

03:05

"How do I tell when I'm being manipulated? "

03:07

Everything goes back to the global cabal.

03:10

There are so many videos like that.

03:12

What's real and what's not?

03:13

It has to be true.

Andy Mills

03:14

And as I was like stressing out about all this stuff, I had this realization that, like, "Oh! I work at the

New York Times

. I am surrounded by very smart, well-resourced reporters who could probably, like, help me find an answer to what the hell is going on". And one of the first calls that I made was you,

Kevin Roose

. Because you are the most online person that I know.

Kevin Roose

03:41

And I remember you saying like, "We gotta report on this, we gotta go investigate". And I was actually, like, I was one tiny step ahead of you because I had just talked to this guy who I thought could really help me understand what the

internet

is actually capable of doing to a person.

04:02

Let's do this.

Andy Mills

04:04

I remember you saying, essentially like, "I'm about to step into a rabbit hole. Do you want to come with me? "

04:12

Give me a little test here.

Kevin Roose

04:13

Oh, sure. Testing, one, two, three. Do-re-mi.

04:19

In just a minute, we're going on an exploration the likes of which you have only seen on futuristic television shows. We're gonna take a ride on the

internet

, and today our destination is the

World Wide Web

04:31

Now that I've gotten on the

internet

, I'd rather be on my computer than doing just about anything.

04:35

Internet

sites will soon become alive with virtual characters, interactivity, and intelligent agents, enabling you to do things you could never have done before.

04:47

You'll find yourself wondering how you ever got along without access to the

information superhighway

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🇮🇹 Made with love & passion in Italy. 🌎 Enjoyed everywhere

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Kevin Roose

Larissa Anderson

Julia Longoria

Andy Mills

BETA

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