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Technology's Legacy: the 'Loser Edit' Awaits Us All

Posted by Soulskill on from the our-internet-is-a-vengeful-internet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times Magazine has an insightful article putting into words how I've felt about information-age culture for a while now. It's about a phenomenon dubbed the "loser edit." The term itself was born out of reality TV — once an outcome had been decided while the show was still taping, the producers would comb back through the footage and selectively paste together everything that seemed to foreshadow the loser's fall. When the show actually aired, it thus had an easy-to-follow narrative.

But as the information age has overtaken us, the "loser edit" is something that can happen to anyone. Any time a celebrity gets into trouble, we can immediately search through two decades of interviews and offhand comments to see if there were hints of their impending fall. It usually becomes a self-reinforcing chain of evidence. The loser edit happens for non-celebrities too, using their social media posts, public records, leaked private records, and anything else available through search.

The worst part is, there's no focal point for the blame. The news media does it, the entertainment industry does it, and we do it to ourselves. Any time the internet gets outraged about something, there are a few people who happily dig up everything they can about the person they now feel justified in hating — and thus, the loser edit begins.

7 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Classic Case by Aaron_Pike · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's a classic case of confirmation bias. The human brain does it all the time; if you don't know what it is or how to avoid it, look it up.

    Yeah, I'm probably preaching to the choir on that last bit. I hope I am, anyway.

    1. Re:Classic Case by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's why the EU right to have old, irrelevant search results is so important. Society has to forgive and forget, otherwise lives are ruined by one or two mistakes. It's great that machines remember everything for us, but also terrible.

      I would say it's the opposite - that if everyone has their mistakes on parade, then it' makes it easier for others can admit that they too aren't perfect. Instead of trying to appear what we're not, we should be more interested in being who we are, warts and all, and encouraging others to do the same.

      It wasn't that long ago that a woman who was raped was considered "ruined for life." By speaking out about it instead of trying to hide it, that is no longer the case. Same with gays and lesbians that used to have to hide in the closet. We can't go on wasting lives with some false idea that if you can get people to forget about it, you don't have to deal with it.

      We simply can't advance, either as individuals or a society, if we actively "forget" anything that society labels a "mistake." Imagine a world where everyone can't throw rocks because everyone else knows the rock-throwers are also not so perfect.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Re:Hindsight or Rewrite? by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you don't understand this world then I would posit that that is simply because you do not know enough about it.

    Understanding the World is not the goal for everyone, indeed, perhaps fewer people than one might imagine want it all neatly explained by science and informed study.

    If people have proven nothing else, it seems clear many are much more comfortable in an illogical cocoon of faith and superstition.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. Re:Hindsight or Rewrite? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you think you understand this world then I would posit that that is also because you do not know enough about it.

    The person who thinks they know it all quite often knows all too little. We are not yet at a point where we (collectively) know it all.

  4. Re:So? by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

    The entire new testament pretty much selectively foreshadows the ending too.
    Jesus was loser-edited.

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    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  5. "Loser edit" is a new name for a very old evil. by johnnys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember Fatty Arbuckle? He was a bigger star than Charlie Chaplin in his day. He mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope.

    Then he threw a party where a hooker got sick and later died. Months later, the jury at his final trial actually gave him a formal written statement of apology from the jury, because of the grief he had gone through for no good reason.

    His films were banned and his career was over: And all the publicity was edited and picked to ensure the narrative justified his destruction.

    It's called "yellow journalism" these days but it's been around since speech was invented.

    --
    Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
    1. Re:"Loser edit" is a new name for a very old evil. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      So a man walks into a bar, and sits down. He starts a conversation with an old guy next to him. The old guy has obviously had a few. He says to the man:

      "You see that dock out there? Built it myself, hand crafted each piece, and it's the best dock in town! But do they call me "McGregor the dock builder"? No!

      And you see that bridge over there? I built that, took me two months, through rain, sleet and scoarching weather, but do they call me "McGregor the bridge builder"? No! And you see that pier over there, I built that, best pier in the county! But do they call me "McGregor the pier builder"? No!"

      The old guy looks around, and makes sure that nobody is listening, and leans to the man, and he says:
      "but you fuck one sheep..."