One of my working theories for why natural language processing feels unusually contentious at present is, yes, social media. The outspoken researchers speak, more or less constantly, to a large social media audience, and use this forum as the primary way to form and disseminate opinions. For instance, there is a very strong correlation between being an “ACL thought leader”, if not an officer, and tweeting often and aggressively. People of my age understand the addictive and corrosive nature of presenting oneself for online kudos (and jeers), but some people of the older generations lack the appropriate internet literacy to use these tools in moderation, and some people of the younger generations lack the maturity to do the same. Such people have online poisoning. Side-effects include outing oneself as the subject of a subtweet and complaining to a student’s advisor. If you have any of these symptoms, please log off immediately and touch grass.
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