Editing 2071: Indirect Detection

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This comic shows an angry social media post by one of [[Randall]]’s spiky-haired friends, objecting to the views of unknown third parties, which appear to be a cartoonishly and unrealistically evil take on the proper treatment of abandoned animals. This could perhaps be in part a callback to [[2051: Bad Opinions]], in which Cueball is looking to post a response to an absurd or inflammatory opinion that currently may or may not actually exist anywhere on the internet. Sometimes when posting something on social media, such as Facebook, that post can be seen by all the people you have designated as your "friends." In this case the original comment was intended to be read by the people holding these views, people who are not direct friends of Randall's and whose posts he therefore could not see, but because it was posted by his direct friend he could read that response and was able to imagine what it was those other people were saying. Knowing a little about what these other mystery people are saying, through direct quotes from within his friend's comment, and having to fill in the rest by his imagination, he reflects on how weird it is to learn that people who hold such views exist in such an indirect manner.
 
This comic shows an angry social media post by one of [[Randall]]’s spiky-haired friends, objecting to the views of unknown third parties, which appear to be a cartoonishly and unrealistically evil take on the proper treatment of abandoned animals. This could perhaps be in part a callback to [[2051: Bad Opinions]], in which Cueball is looking to post a response to an absurd or inflammatory opinion that currently may or may not actually exist anywhere on the internet. Sometimes when posting something on social media, such as Facebook, that post can be seen by all the people you have designated as your "friends." In this case the original comment was intended to be read by the people holding these views, people who are not direct friends of Randall's and whose posts he therefore could not see, but because it was posted by his direct friend he could read that response and was able to imagine what it was those other people were saying. Knowing a little about what these other mystery people are saying, through direct quotes from within his friend's comment, and having to fill in the rest by his imagination, he reflects on how weird it is to learn that people who hold such views exist in such an indirect manner.
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Some users of social media, such as the unwilling participants in Facebook's [https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-user-news-feeds-to-create-emotional-contagion/ emotional contagion study], have found that despite having many friends of one slant in real life, the posts they see on social media reflect a different slant.  Some consider this could happen to affect political views, or to pursue people suspected of crime.  The comic reads as if Randall's friend has entered one of these "false bubbles" somehow on a social media site, but that as Randall's "bubble" reflects his views, he can only infer what it is like by reading these posts of his friend.
  
 
The title text is a pun comparing the shadows of [[Wikipedia:Allegory of the Cave|Plato's cave]] to the practice of "[[Wikipedia:Throwing shade (slang)|throwing shade]]" (slang for throwing insults, usually subtly), and "the wall" could have a double meaning of both the wall of the cave and the term for someone's social media page.
 
The title text is a pun comparing the shadows of [[Wikipedia:Allegory of the Cave|Plato's cave]] to the practice of "[[Wikipedia:Throwing shade (slang)|throwing shade]]" (slang for throwing insults, usually subtly), and "the wall" could have a double meaning of both the wall of the cave and the term for someone's social media page.
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In the same way, Randall seems to acknowledge that he doesn't actually know what goes on in the social or internet circles that he doesn't inhabit, and is left trying to figure them out, solely by the reaction of others to them.
 
In the same way, Randall seems to acknowledge that he doesn't actually know what goes on in the social or internet circles that he doesn't inhabit, and is left trying to figure them out, solely by the reaction of others to them.
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A further joke behind the pun about "throwing shade" may be that judging anything based only upon the most outrageous points of measurement available will likely produce an inaccurate assessment.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

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