My Internet: Jerusalem Demsas
The writer and podcaster is irked by controversial claims about politics or economics being slipped into articles on other topics.
Most weeks, we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome
, a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she writes incisively about immigration, housing, perceptions versus reality, and much more. (She expands on these articles and ideas in her newsletter, The Cutting Room Floor.) This month she also launched Good on Paper, a policy-focused podcast “that questions what we really know about popular narratives.”Jerusalem doesn’t care if original posters’ stories on Reddit are fake, prefers reading something shitty to watching a video when she needs to learn something, and thinks there’s a book to be written about the ethical frameworks developing in some online spaces where users have, for example, abandoned the concept of duty. —Nick
EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or post that made you laugh?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS:
[Link]
EMBEDDED: What shows up on your TikTok For You page?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Oh gosh. It’s a bizarre mix of people doing their makeup as they tell me stories about their lives or their friends lives, women complaining about bad hair or nail care services they’ve received, tiktoks about politics that have convinced me the CCP is trying to destroy democracy and people unsuccessfully trying to make it as DC influencers.
EMBEDDED: Do you still tweet? Why?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Yes, I do. I’m not a born poster but even as the platform has significantly degraded, Twitter still is the most common place to see journalists/policymakers/academics all in one place. The network effects are really strong!
EMBEDDED: Have you found any good alternatives to Twitter? Do you have an opinion on Threads?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: No, I had high hopes for threads but the app is so buggy and the networks haven’t transferred over. Also it’s not useful for news.
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I love Close Friends. I love it so much. I vacillate between having like 10 people I’m very close to, to now having like everyone I know IRL on there. The little green circle makes people more likely to reach out and having a little chat with someone you care about but aren’t seeing on a regular basis is so nice.
EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I don’t know why because I’m nearly addicted to TikTok but I just have never had the patience or interest for YouTube. When I need to learn something I’d prefer a shitty reading experience to watching a video it’s just such a slow way to mainline information or content.
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: A mix of twitter, the NYTimes home page, my email, and various slacks I’m in!
EMBEDDED: Where do you usually discover or learn about online trends?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: TikTok or my group chats.
EMBEDDED: What’s something that you have observed about the online behavior of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and/or Boomers?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Younger generations have the benefit of getting to “see things for themselves” now that the smartphone is ubiquitous and everyone has a high-res recording device in their pockets. But as I’ve spent more time on TikTok I’ve realized how this sense that you’re “seeing things for yourself” can blind you to how easily manipulated those recordings can be, whether it’s a recording about an interaction between a rude service worker and a customer that later gets revealed is missing crucial context or it’s something more important like war coverage or Biden looking old.
I don’t think there’s an easy “fix” here, but I do get worried that people vacillate between immediately believing video footage that confirms their priors to extreme skepticism about video footage that might change their minds. It feels like we’re just continually reducing societal trust and have no off ramp. I also think it’s possible that video could really lose its power as a democratizing force for spreading the truth (as happened with the murder of George Floyd for instance) and we’ll again have to rely on institutional gatekeepers to be the ones to tell us what’s really happening. Pros and cons there I suppose.
EMBEDDED: What are your favorite Substack or other independent newsletters?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: My friend Emily has this great newsletter called
Also ofc, my newsletter 🤪
EMBEDDED: What’s one positive media trend? What’s one negative trend?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Ok the negative one is bugging me so much but it has become so commonplace to slip extremely controversial claims about politics or economics into articles that aren’t really about that. But because those articles are culture or personal essay or something else, the claims aren’t treated by editors with the rigor they should. There was a recent NYT article that was travel recommendations for Brooklyn and it included the extremely contested claim that Williamsburg and Dumbo are “overdeveloped.”
Of course, it’s obvious that this author is just parroting the common knowledge that there’s been too much construction and newness in these neighborhoods. But words have meaning. And words in the paper of record have power. And the continuing insistence that the problem with highly desirable neighborhoods is that they’ve built too much rather than too little is one of the biggest problems facing America right now.
I see this sort of thing all the time and it drives me bonkers. As someone who writes about politics and economics I can’t imagine my editors letting me slip a phrase like that in there without proper justification and clarification.
EMBEDDED: Are you into any podcasts right now? How and when do you usually listen?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Yes, check out Good on Paper a new policy show hosted by *checks notes* oh, sorry that’s my podcast. Other than that I really enjoy Know Your Enemy and The Big Dig.
EMBEDDED: Have you had posts go viral? What is that experience like?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I haven’t had anything go mega-viral in the hundreds of thousands of retweets but posts that do well on twitter, it’s usually just fine because I’ve turned off notifications for anyone I don’t follow personally.
Before that, however I learned that there’s a lot of anti-semitism out there and a lot of people confused about Jewish naming conventions.
EMBEDDED: Who’s someone more people should follow?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Matt Zeitlin. Man’s a born poster.
EMBEDDED: Which big celebrity has your favorite internet presence, and why?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Currently Sabrina Carpenter who seems so online that it’s relatable.
EMBEDDED: When was the last time you browsed Pinterest? What for?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I could never get into Pinterest! I’m not sure why. I was always a Tumblr girlie.
EMBEDDED: Do you have a take on Tumblr?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I LOVED Tumblr. I was on it during the peak years and it was such a lovely pseudonymous place where I got to explore some of the most insane corners of the internet in peace. I am grateful to this day that I got to do that in my teen years before anyone cared what kids were posting online.
EMBEDDED: Are you in any groups on Reddit, Discord, Slack, or Facebook? What’s the most useful or entertaining one?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I love Reddit. I’m obsessed with all the personal stories whether it’s r/BORU or r/AITA or a dozen others I check in on, it’s just fun to see how commenters react to OP’s stories about their lives and how they mete out judgement (I DONT CARE IF THEY’RE FAKE). There’s a whole book to be written about the ethical frameworks developing in some of these online spaces—in some places they’ve abandoned the concept of duty altogether.
EMBEDDED: How has using LinkedIn benefitted you, if at all?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: I deleted LinkedIn for awhile but brought it back in the last few months because I saw some people were using it as a quasi-blogging space.
EMBEDDED: Do you typically start searches on Google, Reddit, TikTok, or another source? Have you found Google’s “generative AI” summaries helpful?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Typically? Google. I do search Reddit and Tiktok. And no I hate them, I wish I could turn them off.
EMBEDDED: What most excites you about AI chatbots and text and art generators? What most concerns you?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: There are going to be massive productivity gains. Lots of people will be able to create and it’ll unlock opportunities to regular people to make art/music/writing just as the invention of the iphone and cheap editing tools did. I’m worried about the transition that comes with every major technological innovation and that the productivity gains will come with a ton more inequality which is politically destabilizing.
EMBEDDED: Are you currently playing any console, computer, or phone games?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Wingspan!
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: 🤪🤪🤪🤪
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Podcasts from my friends? I love them.
EMBEDDED: What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Absolutely obsessed with Vampire Weekend’s new album, planning on seeing them twice this year! Everyone should go listen, it’s the best thing they’ve done so far.
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
JERUSALEM DEMSAS: Google Scholar. Wikipedia. Sci-Hub. Amazing resources!
Thanks Jerusalem! Listen to her podcast, read her writing, subscribe to her newsletter, and follow her on Twitter.
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