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What Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s Canceled Cage Match Says About Masculine Anxiety
While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to be on hold, if these men do ever end up sparring, it’ll give a whole new meaning to the term “tech bro.” The two billionaires’ business interests have butted heads in the past: Musk’s 2016 test launch of a SpaceX rocket destroyed Zuckerberg’s USD 200 million satellite. In 2022, Musk said Zuckerberg shouldn’t dominate social media and encouraged people to abandon Meta-owned Facebook. Meta also recently launched Threads, which competes directly with Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.
But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men. At one point, it was rumored that the live-streamed fight would take place in Rome’s Colosseum, where gladiators once gruesomely battled to the death.
What in the name of Maximus is going on? Though Musk and Zuckerberg have attempted to frame their pugilistic pursuit as a once-in-a-generation event, they are far from alone. They join the ranks of other high-profile men in public and political positions who have shown off their physical strength to burnish their status.
As a gender scholar, I’ve seen how these fights – let’s call them “performances of virility” – tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack.
Money can’t buy masculinity You don’t usually see two wealthy white billionaires duking it out. So what would Musk and Zuckerberg gain from fighting each other? As sociologist Scott Melzer writes in his study of fight clubs, “Manhood Impossible,” fighting is culturally associated with masculinity, and US culture celebrates men’s violence in the right contexts.
For white-collar white men, Melzer explains, fighting can help them to feel they have passed a test of adulthood and fulfilled the cultural requirement of strength. The fighting helps them prove to themselves that they are “real men,” despite their soft – probably manicured – hands.
To me, the chest-puffing between Musk and Zuckerberg is a desperate display of masculinity for two tech nerds with deep pockets. They say money can’t buy happiness. Perhaps money can’t buy masculinity, either.
Kris Paap, author of “Working Construction,” explains that men who don’t take risks are often seen by their peers as weak and effeminate. Men who risk their health and well-being, on the other hand, prove their bravado for the respect of their peers.
This is particularly the case for working-class men. But politicians have also put on gloves to fight for admiration – and political clout – through displays of physical prowess.
In 2012, Justin Trudeau squared off against Senator Patrick Brazeau in a boxing match. A member of Canada’s Parliament who came from money and political royalty, Trudeau declared before the match that he was “put on this planet to do this … I fight – and I win.” After emerging from the bout victorious, Trudeau’s image as a scrawny nepo baby all but evaporated. Three years later, he became prime minister just like his dad.
There are countless examples of other powerful men looking to showcase their virility. Russian President Vladimir Putin infamously rode horses shirtless, while US President Joe Biden once said that when he was in high school, he would have taken Donald Trump “behind the gym and beat the hell” out of him.
For almost two centuries, performances of masculinity – from William Henry Harrison to Donald Trump – have been a part of successful US presidential campaigns.
The end of men … again and again It is no coincidence that Musk vs Zuckerberg comes at a time when there is a popular perception that masculinity is in crisis. Women are obtaining college degrees at a faster clip than men, while income gaps are closing. Suicides and overdoses among men – often termed “deaths of despair” – are on the rise.
Belief in a “crisis of masculinity” spikes during times of progressive social change. And proponents of this view tend to blame feminists and other social progressives for critiquing traditionally masculine mores and values, which, they claim, is causing men to spiral.
Gender scholars point to the turn of the 20th century and the 1990s as other moments of social change that sparked similar anxieties.
In 1890, moves toward coeducation stoked debates around girls and boys being taught the same curriculum. Advocates suggested that sex shouldn’t matter in the classroom and that girls’ education should prepare them for jobs outside the home.
This didn’t go over well with men who benefited from gender segregation. The Boy Scouts of America actually emerged in 1910 so that boys were assured a space where girls and women weren’t allowed – and where boys would be “sufficiently” acquainted with masculinity.
Similarly, the emergence of identity politics in the 1990s, which highlighted rights-based ideologies, scrutinized, in particular, the privileges of white men.
Today, social progress – whether it’s more women in the workplace, more women in political office or girls permitted to join what is now referred to as “the Scouts” – seems to stoke men’s insecurities.
You can see it in the popularity of men’s rights advocates like Jordan Peterson, who claims men are being asked to castrate themselves in the name of equality. And you can see it in conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s scorn toward the “Barbie” movie, which has been lauded for calling out patriarchal values.
In these moments, men have historically taken predictable actions to reclaim the idea that they are inherently different from women – and thus belong in different spaces.
Sociologist Martha McCaughey has pointed out how evolutionary biology has become the popular way to argue that men just can’t help their “innate propensities.” This includes the urge to dominate others, whether that’s in business, in bed – or, yes, in the ring.
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Reddit, the popular social networking platform, is starting a new contributor program, which will let users convert their Reddit gold and karma into real money. Reddit made the announcement in a blog post, alongside bringing a new simplified way to award content on its platform with Reddit gold. Eligible Redditors will receive actual money for their contributions on a monthly basis. Reddit gold is awarded by other Redditors to users for their content on the platform, while karma — the number next to a username on Reddit — is accumulated over time by posting and commenting.
Reddit announced the contributor program on Monday, promising real (fiat) money to qualifying redditors and mods for their contributions to the platform. A qualifying Redditor must be 18 years or older, live in a supported location, and must have a Reddit account. “Once enrolled in the program, redditors will receive payments on a monthly basis. The earnings a redditor receives are calculated based on the amount of karma earned and gold received on their eligible contributions,” Reddit’s blog post said.
The contributor program is now rolling out in the US across Web, iOS and Android Reddit apps. Users can head to the program via their profile menu, where eligible users can tap the ‘Get Verified to Start Earning’ button to enrol in the program. Reddit has not revealed details about the payout for users.
The company has also brought a simplified way to give away Reddit gold to users. With the new gold system, users can long press the upvote icon on mobile (or hover over it on desktop) directly within the post or comment they want to reward and select from a pop-up of six gold awarding options, ranging from $1.99 (roughly Rs. 165) for one gold to $49.00 (roughly Rs. 4,077) for 25 gold. This will result in a golden upvote in place of a regular one. This feature is only available in select communities on Reddit’s native mobile apps and will reach other communities in the coming weeks. The new gold system will be available on Web later this year.
Reddit’s new gold system
Photo Credit: Reddit
Reddit is making efforts to reward its contributors months after thousands of popular subreddits went dark in protest against the company’s plan to charge for access to its data. Reddit now charges third-party app developers for access to its for its application programming interface (API). As a result, many popular third-party apps for the platform, including Apollo, have had to shut down. Apollo had said, with their current usage, the charges would cost them more than $20 million (roughly Rs. 160 crore) a year.
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X, formerly known as Twitter, has been promised to get an audio and video calls feature. Last month, Elon Musk, who took over the social media platform in October last year, had tweeted that a voice and video calling feature was coming to X, confirming that calls would work on iOS, Android, Mac & PC and would not require a phone number. The much-awaited audio and video calls feature, however, might not be available to all X users. According to leaked screenshots of part of X’s code that pertain to the feature, only X Premium subscribers could have access to audio and video calls.
Investor Chris Messina posted screenshots of X’s code on rival app Threads (first spotted by TechCrunch), which suggests that users could be able to take audio and video calls from people in their address book, people they follow, and Verified users. The screenshot suggests that the feature would allow users to opt in or out and decide who to receive calls from. “Take messaging to the next level with audio and video calls. Turn the feature on and then select who you’re comfortable using it with,” the feature’s description says in the code screenshot.
More interestingly, a second screenshot hints that the feature could be a paid service as part of the X Premium subscription. “Audio and video calls are a premium feature. Subscribe to get access,” and “Subscribe to Premium to call,” the code appears to read under the section ‘when someone tries to DM someone and hits their rate limit.’
X Premium, that launched as Twitter Blue, adds a host of features for paying subscribers, including the verification badge, reduced number of ads on the feed, longer posts, and the ability to edit posts. On the Web, X Premium costs $8 per month or $84 per year (Rs. 650/month or Rs. 6,800/year). On both iOS and Android, the subscription costs $11 a month or $114.99 a year (Rs. 900 a month or Rs. 9,400 a year).
Musk intends to transform X into an “everything app” in the mould of China’s WeChat, offering social networking, calling and messaging, and even in-app payments. The Tesla CEO has also sought to monetize services on X. In a recent meeting with Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk reportedly said that X would charge its users a small monthly fee to use the platform. Musk said moving towards a monthly payment system could counter bots from amplifying hate speech on the platform.
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Telegram launched the stories feature for premium users in July, which was later available for all users in August. Now, the company has added new updates to the feature, allowing users to add music and reaction stickers to the stories. Moreover, users can directly send and share media in view-once mode, which can be changed anytime. Telegram has now extended the ability to put up stories to channels. In order to do so, they need to receive boots from their users.
In August, Telegram made its Stories feature available to all users. It works similarly to Instagram Stories and lets users put up stories for 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours. Now, the social media platform has extended the ability to post stories for Telegram Channels. However, they will be dependent on a boost from Premium users to do so. Telegram Premium will provide one boost per user that can be granted to any channel. As the channels gain boosts, they will step up to different levels. With each level, channel admins can post an additional story per day. Users can still decide the Channels on which they wish to see stories. Channels can check how many boosts they need to grow their level by going to Channel Info > More > Statistics > Boosts.
Another update is the ability to add reaction stickers and music to the stories. Users and channels can put up reaction stickers, and viewers can respond to them with a single tap. In order to add a reaction sticker, users can click on the icon in the sticker panel and choose any emoji from the provided options. While Premium users can add up to 5 reaction stickers per story, other users will be allowed only one reaction sticker per story. Users can add music to their stories by going to Audio > Select file > Adjust the track. They can also choose to keep the original audio.
Similar to WhatsApp and Instagram, users can send media on Telegram with a view-once mode. Users can switch between a view-once setting or a 30-second display mode. View-once mode will permanently delete the media file once opened, and the viewer cannot save it or take screenshots.
Last but not least, Telegram will send a login alert to users every time they log in from a new device. They can also review all the devices they are logged on by going to Settings > Devices. For an additional security layer, users can add two-step verification. To do so, they need to go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Two-Step Verification.
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