A video essay on what we give up in exchange for the convenience that social media and algorithms provide.
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Never thought I’d see an MMM article on here, but it’s definitely relevant.
That’s what Richard Stallman has been preaching since the 80’s
I mean, he worked (before going feral) in the place where much of what made our world different from the 80s was pioneered. Even if we hear about Berkeley or Stanford more.
It’s a situation where you want to follow those having potentially the best inside information. About the culture of the people involved, about their ideas.
It’s still unsettling how in Tolkien’s world Melkor is the weird one out, while the rest of Valar are good. Really seems to be inverted in tech.
And also delay-tolerant not perpetually directly networked systems don’t have to be inconvenient. They are made that by directed effort.
I’m not a big social media user myself. Lemmy is pretty much it, unless I count watching videos on YouTube social media. I still feel a lot of the points he makes in the video.
Richard Stallman is a household name to tech enthusiasts, but there’s a whole young generation that’s being brought up in a world where this stuff was already there. I’m lucky I remember not having the internet as a child and I worry about how this is effecting the people who are oblivious to it.
Fuck, I rather be inconvenience then dealing with this shit. I’ll make my own way and have with self hosting.
That’s 18 minutes I don’t need to spend learning a minutes worth. (He starts out complaining about the lost time he’s invested…)
This is true of the overwhelming majority of YouTube videos I see submitted here. The information density is just abysmal compared to a page of text.
Harder to monetize a page of text
I have long said that convenience and security are opposite ends of the same line.
Not just you, that’s a pretty common principle.
What is explicitly convenient about social media?
It’s really convenient for finding events in my city. I wish the places I frequent would use RSS, that would be even more convenient for me, but alas.
Once you’re signed in “everything” is there
“Everything”
yeah? Do you disagree or something
Ya, I disagree that it makes things more convenient, and I disagree it brings “everything” under one umbrella.
It makes some communication easier. That’s about how far I’m willing to go to describe its positives.
I am meaning it has “everything” the average user wants all in one place. For example on Facebook you can see news, talk with friends, share any media, play games, join communties for a wide variety of hobbies. Its also designed to keep you on site. This makes it a 1 stop shop for people. We can look at all the big platforms and see that they have a wide variety of content to keep the user entertained and methods to make them not want to go anywhere else.
I dont think its good, like the title of the post I think the convenience of everything being in a single site/app is a trap.
And I guess what I’m saying is it’s not a trap, it’s explicitly not even convenience. Yes, it’s full of dopamine producing trinkets that make you want to stay on the site, but don’t mistake it for convenience. Convenience is the wrong word.
