I think a good amount of it is also "the straw that broke the camel's back." Twitter users have been taking abuse after abuse. Like many others have stated, they use Twitter to follow specific people. If those people aren't on other platforms, then they're going to stay. But after a certain point, the cost becomes too high. Now the platform is rebranded and now it looks as alien as it's begun to feel. I think that's why so many are once again leaving. Before they could just ignore everything else going on and try to move on with their day. Not there's a big, fat X reminding them of how much they're starting to/already hate the platform now.
DaedalousIlios
joined 2 years ago
Didn't know that my autism made me racist too. Damn.
I understand your frustration entirely. And for the most part, I agree with it. But for music producers, especially if they're indie, they have no choice. Content creators trying to make a living off of their art rely on putting themselves out there on the biggest platforms to maximize the amount of exposure they're going to get. The importance of social media with millions upon millions of users for an indie artist cannot be understated. It is the difference between them paying rent, and getting evicted.
As for the average user, as others have stated, they have friends, family, and content creators that they like to follow. Digital privacy comes at a cost. We cannot afford to create the misconception that acts protecting our digital privacy are free actions. And the level of cost and willingness to pay it varies from person to person. I don't need Facebook to keep up with my parents. But many people do. For their parents and the rest of their family and loved ones. I was willing to make the switch to Linux, but it cost me some simplicity in my gaming; some titles aren't just plug n play. Even ones that were on Windows. Switching to Lemmy was nothing for me, but for some people, they're giving up subreddits they loved, or they have to keep using Reddit to access them. And there are some valuable resources there.
Privacy isn't free. It's invaluable and sometimes the price tag reflects that.
So, if I understand correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but the simplified version of this is: data collection allows massive cooperations to target Communities of Interest (CoI) and manipulate them by collectively altering their digital perception via a barrage of targeted advertisements, promoted articles and suggested social media posts?
And all of this leads to an eventual shift in the opinions and desires of said CoIs, leading to what the company would deem desirable behavior, be it growing apathetic to digital privacy, buying their product or growing more engaged with their platform?
Indeed. New Grounds was before my time, but I've been there. The point was more to illustrate that there is definitely potential in this thing.
Ever heard of "New Grounds?" They're basically about to recreate that place. Now all they need is a forum and it'll be complete!
Tbh, if it's not that, it's gotta be a Dark Brotherhood reference.
I think there's many contributing factors. I actually was thinking about the same thing before I found your post, and the answer that came to mind outside of some of the ones people posted here was:
It feels like a breath of fresh air because we're outside the Walled Garden. We're not trapped on a platform who's soul has been crushed and wrung for every penny's worth like Reddit or Twitter. And we can see that there is a world on the Internet besides the Walled Garden and that fact is very liberating. It makes you feel like you don't have to go back.
Spock from Star Trek and Lt. Commander Data from TNG are some powerful representation of autism.
They're not officially stated as being "autistic," but I and many others in the community find them to be insanely relatable and representative of autism. Their struggles are much the same as those that we in the neuro-divergent community can relate to.
Then there's me, who groups then up and eats them in groups sorted by color.
Imagine if this all turns out to be petty revenge from Wallstreet for Reddit thwarting their Gamestop ploy.
Various story spoilers:
Tl;Dr Tyria is a dark fucking place at times and they're not always afraid to show it. The only difference in tone between GW2 and ER is that ER is a lot more graphic and visually shocking.