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Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

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Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#401

Post by happytiger »

wkat4242 wrote: post #207
mbb70 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extreme personalization of the internet/modern life can lead to a feeling of isolation. I recently was on a plane with broken inflight entertainment, so all you could watch was a single movie in lock step with everyone else. When the movie ended, there was a weird sense of camaraderie; "we are all stuck in this tube and we all just sat through that mediocre movie".

You mean .. like going to the cinema?

Absorb the irony of that comment. Yea, exactly like going to the cinema. But that’s their point about hyperpersonalization being weirdly isolating.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#402

Post by happytiger »

donatj wrote: post #316
mbb70 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extreme personalization of the internet/modern life can lead to a feeling of isolation. I recently was on a plane with broken inflight entertainment, so all you could watch was a single movie in lock step with everyone else. When the movie ended, there was a weird sense of camaraderie; "we are all stuck in this tube and we all just sat through that mediocre movie".

I was honestly kind of shocked to find out a coworker watched a couple of the same YouTubers I do. It's probably just because my interests are obscure but my assumption has always been I live in my own bubble. Even my friends don't consume anything like the same media I do, going back to the early aughts. About once a month I'll be watching a YouTube Short and my wife will yell out "Hey, I saw that on Tiktok"

Media makes you feel isolated and utterly unique. This is personalization deployed at scale. I worked on the first personalization systems and been involved in their implantation for decades.

It’s fascinating how they’ve affected culture to the point where people don’t even see them anymore.

Personalization is profoundly powerful technology at scale. Do not underestimate their influence. What you talk about is the ever present concern of people who know you will talk, and almost everyone talks.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#403

Post by hbs18 »

pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

> Today, I know what Spotify is trying to push, but I have no idea if that is what is actually popular. Even if I were to install TikTok I probably wouldn't see the same things they are. I have no idea if the garbage on the front page of reddit is really reflective of how younger people think, or if it just an engagement algorithm feedback loop gone wrong where everyone reasonable has long since checked out.

In the case of youtube, you can just open the front page in an incognito tab. There's also the trending category which isn't catered to you specifically but to what's popular in your country/area around you.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#404

Post by Kbelicius »

frabbit wrote: post #96
zo1 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me when we've had a verified audit and report and detailed breakdown of all censorship. I want database dumps, SQL statements, verifiable guids and URLs, etc. Until then that's just a grey blob of hearsay and may very well be "true" but doesn't represent reality. We need to see the raw data.

Failing that it is probably worth listening-to/reading Matt Taibbi: https://twitterfiles.substack.com/p/the-censorship-industria... https://public.substack.com/p/censorship-leaders-accuse-us-o...

> Failing that it is probably worth listening-to/reading Matt Taibbi:

No it is not.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/msnbc-host-mehdi-hasan-makes-m...

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#405

Post by Tainnor »

Kbelicius wrote: post #393
akoboldfrying wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>we could collectively ask ourselves what we want and do that That is what democratic countries already do every 3-5 years -- and TTBOMK the system that gets chosen has so far had capitalism as an important component every single time, despite the option to vote for parties that eschew it partly or completely.

This is ignoring a lot of history where people democratically chose something different just to be "invaded" by those that chose capitalism.

Maybe, but nobody has invaded the US or Western Europe for a while now.

I think the counterargument that I would mount is that what people want, or think what they want, isn't necessarily what is good for them. This is obviously a very dangerous line of thought - because it can justify all sorts of oppression - but I think it's nevertheless true.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#406

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #388
Eisenstein wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you know what most people think?

Sort of like my dad, a professor of finance, who had a student remark to him "I didn't know there even was a case for free markets!" I get similar responses. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on HN who understands how free markets work. For example, most people would say that hard work leads to success. This is incorrect. It's creating value that leads to success. I very rarely hear the latter, in fact, prett…

[deleted]

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#407

Post by ClumsyPilot »

jkhdigital wrote: post #389
idle_zealot wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as though basing our society around profit maximization yields negative outcomes. But I'm sure this is just a blip that the Market will correct for.

Profit-maximizing business is the engine of economic growth. Looking over the past couple hundred years, I’d say the outcomes have been nothing short of spectacular.

Unregulated profit maximising business has killed how many people through the trans atlantic slave trade?

Without regulation, this is what happens - the bank would collect your organs for payment if they could. Buinesses have no ethical standards.

Profit maximing business did not invent antibiotics, did not invent sanitation, did not create public sewers, running water, soap, GPS, and clorination of water.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#408

Post by superb_dev »

WalterBright wrote: post #388
Eisenstein wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you know what most people think?

Sort of like my dad, a professor of finance, who had a student remark to him "I didn't know there even was a case for free markets!" I get similar responses. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on HN who understands how free markets work. For example, most people would say that hard work leads to success. This is incorrect. It's creating value that leads to success. I very rarely hear the latter, in fact, prett…

> …most people would say that hard work leads to success.

I don’t think most people would agree with that these days. I know most of the people around me wouldn’t

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#409

Post by MrVandemar »

Borrible wrote: post #381
donatj wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was honestly kind of shocked to find out a coworker watched a couple of the same YouTubers I do. It's probably just because my interests are obscure but my assumption has always been I live in my own bubble. Even my friends don't consume anything like the same media I do, going back to the early aughts. About once a month I'll be watching a YouTube Short and my wife will yell out "Hey, I saw that on Tiktok"

You'll be even more shocked when you find out you're coworkers because an HR AI calculated you were a good team fit because of the same preferences. You think, that's just a joke? Just wait until you're married...

Relevant: Maneki Neko, a short story by Bruce Sterling.

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/maneki-neko/

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#410

Post by Tainnor »

WalterBright wrote: post #388
Eisenstein wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you know what most people think?

Sort of like my dad, a professor of finance, who had a student remark to him "I didn't know there even was a case for free markets!" I get similar responses. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on HN who understands how free markets work. For example, most people would say that hard work leads to success. This is incorrect. It's creating value that leads to success. I very rarely hear the latter, in fact, prett…

I can guarantee you that you're neither the only person, on HN or elsewhere, that "understands how free markets work" (if anyone can every truly fully understand a complex emergent system), nor are most people incapable of realising that hard work only pays off when you create value - it's just that for many people, hard work is the safest, and sometimes the only, way to get there.
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