this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
279 points (96.3% liked)
collapse of the old society
1358 readers
13 users here now
to discuss news and stuff of the old world dying
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Coincidentally on point, I just happened to rewatch the IT Crowd episode “FriendFace” (IMDB).
It came out December 2008, just as Facebook was going mainstream, and it fucking it nails it, all the way back then.
Transforming the internet into a single monolithic social space is just not a good idea. And it was likely the beginning of data mining, privacy breaches, manipulation etc. None of that makes anywhere nearly as much sense without big social platforms.
It could and should be remembered as our generation’s cigarettes/smoking. Something we all just did despite how obviously bad an idea it was (again, IT Crowd nailed it out of the gate, which means it was there for anyone to notice).
It's not The Internet or Smartphones. These are communication devices.
It's people learning, thanks to increased networking and information access, that we live in a layer cake of dystopias.
I don't think you are correct. Since the best way companies found to make money while giving things away for free is advertising, they need to keep people watching. Sadly the things that engage people most are fear and hatred. So that's what we get served up.
It's just the same old adages that news used to have, "if it bleeds, it leads", but pushed up to 11.