58
Do people know what the Streisand effect was about? (swg-empire.de)
submitted 4 days ago by bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We all know the pattern by now. Something minor happens. One of the affected parties doesn't want people talking about it. So they go on a crusade against anyone tha makes a small mention about the thing which ends up making the thing super famous.

It is called the Streisand effect after Barbara Streisand who famously went through such a thing. But for all the fame the effect has, how many people actually still remember what it was originally about, without looking it up?

I certainly don't. I'm pretty sure I looked it up once but apparently it wasn't interesting enough to remember. This just proves once again that ignoring the thing is much more effective than trying to silence talk about the thing.

Kind of similar to the Watergate scandal and all subsequent -gates. I think it's about some spy drama revealing the president's crimes at the Watergate Hotel that led to Richard Nixon resigning but that's about it. And that's probably wrong.

Now that I think about it (I should really get out of this shower) there are probably tons of idioms that are even further removed from their origin. I bet some are so far removed that we don't even register them as being idioms. They're just words.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

it was about this photographThe original image of Barbra Streisand's cliff-top residence in Malibu, California, which she attempted to suppress in 2003

Of course I went to the wikipedia article to get a link the actual image to post here, but, to answer your question: yes I did in fact remember what the photo looks like without looking it up.

I'd forgotten that the term was coined by Mike Masnick, though.

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
58 points (100.0% liked)

Showerthoughts

38438 readers
454 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
vatlark@lemmy.world
forkball@lemmy.world
SuperEars@lemmy.world