I'm not in the same social circles as the poster you cited, but my questions were about Apple, not Tumblr.<<
>>You have ahold of a different part of the same elephant -- how megacorps try to control people through social media.
>>But I'm disinclined to use any social media site that doesn't charge me money, and have a clear story of how they are supporting themselves via customer payments.<<
The problem with that is, when people have to pay for it, speech is no longer free. It creates a divide between those who can afford it and those who can't. We're not protecting the internet was a public forum, we're treating it as private property -- but people are using it as a public forum, and increasingly, that's where the important social interaction happens. When that's controlled by corporations for their own ends, the discourse is manipulated, and many people are shut out due to financial or infrastructural barriers, that causes a lot of problems. Like say, the 2016 election that we'll all be cleaning up after for decades.
Very true. I like that dreamwidth continues to have free accounts avilable, and plenty of people use them.
That still doesn't make this communication free. I take for granted reliable internet connectivity. Others don't have it.
Unfortunately, powerful people have always attempted to control/influence communications. They don't need technology to do it - mockery and shunning work too, in any group of teenagers, though violence is usually another part of the cool kids' tool kit.
And I'm tired and selfish. I can't rescue people from Facebook, or Breitbart, or Fox News - especially when they willingly flock to all of these. All I can do is try to duck the worst of it myself, and maybe influence individuals who value my opinions to join me in this project.
People will use whatever they have to try to communicate. Sometimes they find out the hard way that they are talking to a Stassi informant, or that someone similar is tapping their communications. Or if not government bad actors, then scouts for internet flash mobs. Or for a thieving ring seeking to know about their vacation plans. The means change, but the element of risk really doesn't.
At some point, perhaps, decisions about net neutrality will shut down Dreamwidth. Related decisions are pretty much killing my ISP, slowly, with no trustworthy alternatives available. Or enough people will flee here for the 4channers and breitbarters to target it, whereupon it will become as unusable as LJ frequently was, well before it became a solely Russian thing.
In some ways, those of us in the Baby Boom generation may have been exceptional in the amount of freedom available to us. A good economy meant less self censorship to maintain employability. Underdeveloped search technologies meant our pecadillos did not generally come back to haunt us. It was relatively easy to move away from whatever oppressive circumstances was one born into.
Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just in "glass half full" mode at the moment. I don't really think I have enough information to be certain.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
Well ...
Date: 2018-12-15 08:52 pm (UTC)>>You have ahold of a different part of the same elephant -- how megacorps try to control people through social media.
>>But I'm disinclined to use any social media site that doesn't charge me money, and have a clear story of how they are supporting themselves via customer payments.<<
The problem with that is, when people have to pay for it, speech is no longer free. It creates a divide between those who can afford it and those who can't. We're not protecting the internet was a public forum, we're treating it as private property -- but people are using it as a public forum, and increasingly, that's where the important social interaction happens. When that's controlled by corporations for their own ends, the discourse is manipulated, and many people are shut out due to financial or infrastructural barriers, that causes a lot of problems. Like say, the 2016 election that we'll all be cleaning up after for decades.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2018-12-15 09:30 pm (UTC)That still doesn't make this communication free. I take for granted reliable internet connectivity. Others don't have it.
Unfortunately, powerful people have always attempted to control/influence communications. They don't need technology to do it - mockery and shunning work too, in any group of teenagers, though violence is usually another part of the cool kids' tool kit.
And I'm tired and selfish. I can't rescue people from Facebook, or Breitbart, or Fox News - especially when they willingly flock to all of these. All I can do is try to duck the worst of it myself, and maybe influence individuals who value my opinions to join me in this project.
People will use whatever they have to try to communicate. Sometimes they find out the hard way that they are talking to a Stassi informant, or that someone similar is tapping their communications. Or if not government bad actors, then scouts for internet flash mobs. Or for a thieving ring seeking to know about their vacation plans. The means change, but the element of risk really doesn't.
At some point, perhaps, decisions about net neutrality will shut down Dreamwidth. Related decisions are pretty much killing my ISP, slowly, with no trustworthy alternatives available. Or enough people will flee here for the 4channers and breitbarters to target it, whereupon it will become as unusable as LJ frequently was, well before it became a solely Russian thing.
In some ways, those of us in the Baby Boom generation may have been exceptional in the amount of freedom available to us. A good economy meant less self censorship to maintain employability. Underdeveloped search technologies meant our pecadillos did not generally come back to haunt us. It was relatively easy to move away from whatever oppressive circumstances was one born into.
Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just in "glass half full" mode at the moment. I don't really think I have enough information to be certain.