Internet Classism: How We Know You're Poor & Lame Online

Hello world,

In 2019, I read“Online, No One Knows You’re Poor” where the author wrote about how she wasn’t doing so hot financially, but she was able to curate her way around it and hide that from her audience. This was a tale as old as times for many online personas. The internet was a great equalizer that way, but it’s not that easy anymore. People can tell who you are.

The rungs of internet classism are becoming more defined. New ways to judge people how someone shows up online are being invented daily. It used to be that if you posted a lot online and had a lot of engagement, you were cool, but if you didn’t, you were lame. Social proof is everything on the internet and whether you’re actually cool or not, people like to like what other people already like. Now, people are not only seeing if you are lame with your minuscule engagement (me on Substack) but what class you belong to.

There was a time when your socials were something to hide from your job, your school, your parents, even your friends a lot of the time. Anonymity was huge. Now people value things like “thought leadership” and a potential social media manager’s ability to post on their own accounts. Hiring managers check your LinkedIn. VCs check your Twitter. Your online presence is a resume whether you built it to be one or not, but it only benefits you if you come across a certain way, and we are inventing new indicators daily to sort people into tiers.

Attention spans are getting shorter, and we’re judging people faster because of it. Small indicators online are all we can process during quick glances at our screens. The faster we scroll, the faster we judge.

Even the tools you use are class signals now. People are openly sorting AI apps into tiers, deciding which ones are for “creative people with taste” and which ones are for everyone else. That new hire says they’re AI literate, great!!! BUT are they publishing their thoughts on ChatGPT or Claude?

This goes way beyond the little tech bubble you and I are in. I saw this TikTok where a creator named Xavier broke down how easy it is to tell someone's class from their social media. Filters on your photos, the length of your bio, misspelled words, random emojis. His comments were all people agreeing, people clock that stuff instantly. Your Instagram is like a public credit score to some viewers, and you might have no idea yours is being pulled.

@xavier.clb

how i can tell if you’re poor from your social media

That brings me to the biggest tell of all: whether you even know the game is being played!!!! There’s an entire tier of people who have no idea these hierarchies exist. I hope most people live in this space. Ignorance is bliss baby.

The internet was supposed to be the great equalizer, but I just don’t think it really is anymore. There is an audience grading you on things you didn’t know were part of the rubric, and the rubric changes every few months. It sucks. Maybe I’m wrong.

Let me know what you think:Leave a comment

Tech News

People of Interest

• Sam Bankman-Fried is asking for a new trial on his FTX fraud convictions, arguing that new witnesses could undermine the prosecution’s case. He filed the Feb. 5 motion himself while serving his 25-year sentence, and his mother, Barbara Fried, delivered it to the court clerk. (Bloomberg)

• Anthropic’s Amanda Askell is the company’s resident philosopher, tasked with shaping Claude’s moral framework and personality. She studies the model’s reasoning patterns, writes extensive prompts, and recently published a roughly 30K-word instruction manual designed to guide Claude’s “soul” and sense of right and wrong. (Wall Street Journal)

• OpenAI fired safety executive Ryan Beiermeister in early January, saying she was terminated for sexually discriminating against a male colleague. The move came shortly after she returned from a leave of absence, during which she had pushed back on OpenAI’s plans to roll out erotic content in ChatGPT. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Speaking of OpenAI: OpenAI gave the US military access to ChatGPT through Genai.mil after months of deliberation and by agreeing to the Pentagon’s “all lawful uses” clause. OpenAI offered the same public ChatGPT, so standard guardrails remained and the model was not cleared for top secret use. (Semafor)

Social Media

• On the second day of opening statements in a major social media addiction trial, YouTube argued that it is an entertainment platform, not a social network, and therefore not addictive. Its lawyers said the recommendation algorithm is simply responding to what users choose to watch. (New York Times)

• Runna (I get SO many ads for their platform) added new options to scale back training intensity after some users reported injuries. The running app, which Strava acquired last year, made the update as more people turned to it to prepare for races like the London Marathon, which received 1.1 million ballot entries. (Wall Street Journal)

• India introduced new social media rules requiring platforms to comply with takedown requests within three hours and to clearly label AI-generated content. The measures aim to curb misinformation and deepfakes, and also require companies to prevent users from posting unlawful material. (Bloomberg)

Surveillance

• Russia has fully blocked WhatsApp for failing to comply with local laws and is urging citizens to switch to its state-backed messaging app, MAX, which some say could function as a surveillance tool. This is all a part of a broader push to create a “sovereign” internet where foreign tech companies must follow Russian regulations or be removed. (Reuters)

• Amazon’s Ring has canceled its planned partnership with surveillance company Flock Safety after public backlash over a proposed AI-powered camera network, including a Super Bowl ad promoting a lost-pet search feature. (Fortune)

• Authorities released video of Nancy Guthrie’s abduction after investigators recovered residual footage from Google’s backend systems. The clips existed as unorganized raw data despite her not having a subscription, raising privacy concerns about data retention. (Reuters)

• Discord said most users will not need to complete a face scan or upload ID under its new age verification system. It will rely on account, device, and activity data, only prompting for a video selfie or ID when it cannot confidently estimate age. (The Verge)

  • ICYMI: Starting in March, Discord will require age verification for full access and default all accounts to a teen experience unless users confirm they are adults. Unverified users will face restrictions, including blocked access to age-restricted servers and filtered DMs. (The Verge)

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