The Online Laws of Motion
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The physical world is governed by Newton’s laws of motion.
The online world has its own laws and axioms, many of which are shared and persist even though false.
The trick to creating a memorable Internet truism, it seems, is to make something useful to cite in discussions.
Here are my favorites:
BETTERIDGE’S LAW OF HEADLINES: Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no.” It highlights the common trend of sensationalist headlines posing questions.
It’s named for Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist who wrote about the concept in a February 2009 article that examined a previous TechCrunch piece.
He wrote: “The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.”
The popularity of Betteridge’s Law has prompted academics to analyze the phenomenon. Their research shows that it doesn’t pan out.
GODWIN’S LAW: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
Godwin’s Law was coined by American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990.
It is now most often understood as a reminder both that online conversations escalate quickly and that it’s not a good idea to casually cite the Holocaust.
It is often invoked to caution against the overuse of such comparisons and to encourage more substantive and constructive discourse.
According to an article in Slate, however, researchers who studied almost 200 million Reddit posts didn’t find the increase in references to “Hitler” and “Nazis” Godwin predicted.
CUNNINGHAM’S LAW: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is to post the wrong answer.
Named for programmer Ward Cunningham, the man who created the first online wiki, it reflects the internet’s inclination to correct misinformation swiftly, often in response to an incorrect statement.
The adage is disputed by none other than the man it is named for.
Cunningham says he never uttered the phrase, doesn’t believe it and he made a video to clear things up.
THE STREISAND EFFECT: Any attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the unintended consequence of publicizing it more widely, often resulting in greater attention and awareness.
The term was coined in 2005 by Mike Masnick, the founder of the website Techdirt, in an article discussing a lawsuit filed by Barbra Streisand against a photographer who had taken aerial photographs of her residence.
Streisand inadvertently drew attention to her coastal estate by attempting to suppress the photos. Before her $50 million lawsuit, there had been six downloads of the photos; after there were 400,000 downloads.
The Streisand Effect highlights the power of the internet and social media to amplify information, making attempts to control it counterproductive.
This one seems hard to deny but also hard to disprove.
BRIEF OBSERVATIONS
CRAIG’S LIST: One of the wild things about social media these days is how you can post anything you want. In this case, a VC is asking if there are any startups in which he could invest.
STARBUCKS: She’s not wrong.
KOREAN WAR: I had not previously realized that the Korean War was so deadly.
POD LIFE: I am totally down for spending a month or two in a pod community.
AUSCHWITZ: It doesn’t take a lot of words to make a powerful impression. I follow this social media account so as to never forget what happened.
