inb4: i didnt vote for him - then im not talking about you

The current literacy crisis in a nutshell. Literacy is much more than simply being able to read individual words. A large part of literacy is being able to look at a work, and infer the intended audience. And most of the time, the target audience is not “me”.

But algorithmic feeds have effectively destroyed our ability to detect when something isn’t aimed at us. We have become so accustomed to having everything in our feeds laser-focused to our specific interests and worldviews. Before algorithmic feeds were common, people would see something not aimed at them and they would move the fuck on. They would go “meh, not for me” and keep going. But now people tend to get hostile because they feel like they’re being left out, or being singled out.

And we have literally started seeing it reshape the way our media is written. News articles come with blatant “this is only meant for {target audience}” disclaimers. Recipes come with disclaimers. Opinion articles come with disclaimers. Tutorials come with disclaimers. Maybe not always stated so bluntly, but the idea is the same.

Let’s say I make a TikTok about the proper form for throwing a baseball. It’s focused on muscle groups, limb placement, the way you balance as you proceed through a throw, proper follow-through, etc… Obviously aimed at people who are already comfortable with (and are capable of) throwing a ball. But I’ll still need to add some sort of brief cutaway “and this is only really meant for the people looking to perfect their form. If you can’t throw a ball due to disability, or if you’re just not interested in baseball, you can probably just keep scrolling” disclaimer. Because if I forget that disclaimer, I’ll be inundated with all manner of “{but I have a shoulder injury,} {but I’m in a wheelchair,} {but I’m blind in one eye and don’t have good depth perception,} {baseball is stupid,} {I have a bad back and can’t rotate my trunk,} what about me” comments.

TikTok calls it “Bean Soup Theory”, because of a (now infamous) post about a bean soup recipe. The comments were full of angry “but what if I don’t like beans? What should I substitute instead of beans? What about meeeee” comments. If you don’t like beans, don’t make bean soup. It seems obvious. But people have literally lost the ability to infer when something is (and more importantly, when it isn’t) aimed at themselves. Since algorithmic feeds are tailored specifically to our interests and worldviews, the default expectation has become “I am the target audience.” Even though the vast majority of media isn’t aimed at you, that expectation still bleeds into how you interact with the media you encounter.

Anyways, \rant. It’s just something I’ve been seeing more and more these days, and it has become a constant reminder that literacy rates are plummeting.