As anyone who remembers the 90s/00s can remember, the internet was supposed to liberate us. Free access to information meant everyone would be educated and informed, and able to freely communicate and organize.
That’s not what happened. Corporations turned it into a tool of oppression. Technology has never and will never save us from capitalism on its own. Since the early 1900s we’ve been capable of providing food, housing, and medical care to everyone but we don’t. Technology cannot change that.
Social media is a particularly vile tool. It allows corporations to totally shape the reality of people who use it. To the point where people are so divided it’s all but impossible to oppose the government.
Decentralized social media might be better, at least for now. But it’s still removing the human element from our lives. Instead of talking to each other we create little echo chambers for ourselves. The Fediverse will not fix that.
The only real solution is to reject social media entirely. Which was happening, but now I fear decentralized social media is pulling people back in.
The major benefit of distributed social media comes from one thing: no ads.
It’s the ad-supported business model that creates terrible incentives:
- to spy on the user in order to better guess what they might pay for
- to concoct algorithms that boost the user’s engagement using rage, anxiety, controversy
Virtual socializing does carry drawbacks, as you say. Particularly the problem of group bias reinforcement, i.e. echo chambers and bubbles. But the really bad externalities of modern corporate social media can be traced to one thing IMO: advertising.
Thankfully, there aren’t any ads here. Just the thought of it stresses me out, and when I get stressed out, I reach for a Morley cigarette to keep my cool. The toasted tobacco and asbestos filter make for a smoother smoke, which soothes the throat. 9 out of 10 anti-ad, Fediverse, activists choose Morleys to keep up their pep and vigor in the fight against advertisement.
The only real solution is to reject social media entirely.
…you say on social media.
I understand why, but you’ve got to admit it’s ironic
Free access to information meant everyone would be educated and informed, and able to freely communicate and organize.
Could be, not would be. They still can be. But they won’t be.
Corporations turned it into a tool of oppression.
No the people turned it into a tool of distraction from the pain of life using the tools corporations were happy to provide.
Technology has never and will never save us from capitalism on its own.
Capitalism isn’t the reason that free access to information hasn’t educated and informed everyone. Exactly the same indifference to education and organisation would exist in the absence of capitalism. The limitation isn’t capitalism, the limitation is the suffering that life necessarily implies. In the face of relentless suffering, most people are not motivated to learn beyond what’s necessary to survive.
It’s a dopamine versus serotonin issue. People think they want to be happy, but that longing is more for purpose. Eating ice cream can make you happy, but learning to cook your own meals makes you a more component being able to provide for yourself and those around you.
Most modern luxuries are basically Skinner boxes at this point monetized in some way to keep us staring at it or consuming it.
We doom scroll at the expense of relationship building.
We door dash instead of have community gardens.
Instant gratification isn’t always and intrinsically bad, but the more the default it becomes, the less patient and competent people become.
Then you pile on decades of American exceptionalism and actively encouraging selfishness at the expense of a functioning society and the present state of things is hardly surprising.
