This has probably been posted already, but this article came to mind when reddit entered its death spiral. An interesting observation on the rise and fall of social media.
I’d be lying if I said this didn’t actually move me with that same sense of helpless anger and sense of loss. Really powerful writing.
It is such a disappointment seeing the freedom and openness of the early promised internet turned to the personal rat cages and playpens of the rich, greedy, and powerful … Just like everything else in the real world, unfortunately.
God I love this rant.
Prodigy was upset that people were, by and large, using the free communication service they tossed on there just to have more content and not their weird Random Garbage You Don’t Need Storefront. And in many ways, that complaint has only gotten louder over the decades. Stop talking to each other and start buying things. Stop providing content for free and start paying us for the privilege. Stop shining sunlight on horrors and start advocating for more of them. Stop making communities and start weaponizing misinformation to benefit your betters.
It’s the same. It’s always been the same. Stop benefitting from the internet, it’s not for you to enjoy, it’s for us to use to extract money from you. Stop finding beauty and connection in the world, loneliness is more profitable and easier to control.
Stop being human. A mindless bot who makes regular purchases is all that’s really needed.
I feel this in my damn bones.
Hello, world. Come in from the cold. This will be a good place. For awhile. And then we’ll make another one.
Hello, world. Come in from the cold. This will be a good place. For awhile. And then we’ll make another one.
I hope you’re right. I’m betting on the Fediverse, and the fact that it is not corporate owned and can be forked anytime it needs it. I’m hoping that really all it needs to run is servers, moderators and administrators willing to moderate and administer. I’m hoping that the lack of corporate involvement allows it to continue and be a place where we can actually build communities.
