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My dream of the great unbundling

wired.com

21–30 of 33 posts

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#21

> Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world, climate-wise, with a small dose of civics to go with it? Good luck. You can't get a random user to spend an hour learning. You have approximately two sentences. Like, take YouTube. They've added various "learn about the COVID vaccine" or "here's something to do with Black History Month" rows in the recommended feed to me. I'…

Those streamers could be paid to talk a bit about the climate while they are playing. Mr Beast and friends planted 22 million trees (https://teamtrees.org/), and I think this did have a lasting effect on pop culture, however small.

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#22
I don't understand how I'm living in such a different world than the author here. He asks "Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world", but every large organization I'm familiar invests a lot into telling its users about climate change, civics, and various other social causes which the organization finds important. Is there something I'm misunderstanding?

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#24

> Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world, climate-wise, with a small dose of civics to go with it? Good luck. You can't get a random user to spend an hour learning. You have approximately two sentences. Like, take YouTube. They've added various "learn about the COVID vaccine" or "here's something to do with Black History Month" rows in the recommended feed to me. I'…

[deleted]

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#25

> Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world, climate-wise, with a small dose of civics to go with it? A considerable portion of the population is cynical and jaded, or sees your concern as identification with the opposite political faction than the one they support, and so they may have a kneejerk reaction to any idealism about making the world a better place. Talking…

The author wrote that data-megaminer corporations could perhaps spend a tiny fraction of their behavior modification budget for a net benefit to society.

Somehow you read, "Hire an RMS to yell exactly the same hour-long screed at each and every user."

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#26
post #21

> Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world, climate-wise, with a small dose of civics to go with it? Good luck. You can't get a random user to spend an hour learning. You have approximately two sentences. Like, take YouTube. They've added various "learn about the COVID vaccine" or "here's something to do with Black History Month" rows in the recommended feed to me. I'…

Those streamers could be paid to talk a bit about the climate while they are playing. Mr Beast and friends planted 22 million trees ( https://teamtrees.org/ ), and I think this did have a lasting effect on pop culture, however small.

That wasn't a decision made by the product manager of an algorithmic feed, though.

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#27

> Could you help your users spend one hour a year learning about what’s coming for the world, climate-wise, with a small dose of civics to go with it? A considerable portion of the population is cynical and jaded, or sees your concern as identification with the opposite political faction than the one they support, and so they may have a kneejerk reaction to any idealism about making the world a better place. Talking…

IMO people's opinions are more malleable than one might think, as long as you package the message in the right way and slowly modify it over time. E.g. you would start by telling the anti-vaxer that anti-vax propaganda is a conspiracy by the Chinese to make Americans weaker (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point)

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#28
If I want to dream of anything, I want to dream of an economy which moves from trying to grab eyeballs to focus on screens. I want the harm of social media to be known and for people to take back those billions of hours they waste per year.

I've noticed society's in the last 12 years or so has gotten much meaner, much more angry. And for what, most people are actually really nice in the real world. Social media often feels like the coldness of a big city, on a gargantuan scale. Millions of people will call you ugly or stupid, if it makes them feel a little bit better for a second.

My shared experience is going for a walk in the park with a little FM radio. I share nature with all the other people in the park, and rarely mostly the old people from a time before social media, will say hi or talk about how rough a certain trail is to walk. I feel like I'm wildly optimistic, but I do think social media is going to self-destruct , in along with it the rising rates of suicide and mental illness. In 20 years spending 10 hours on social media ( dating apps definitely count) will be seen the same way as smoking two packs a day. A lot of people will do it, many will be addicted and unable to stop, but it'll be a collective knowledge it's not a healthy activity.

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#29
post #28

If I want to dream of anything, I want to dream of an economy which moves from trying to grab eyeballs to focus on screens. I want the harm of social media to be known and for people to take back those billions of hours they waste per year. I've noticed society's in the last 12 years or so has gotten much meaner, much more angry. And for what, most people are actually really nice in the real world. Social media often…

this is worded so well, thank you

Re: My dream of the great unbundling

#30
post #10

For some weird reason, on all of the recent Wired articles, all I am able to see is the first paragraph. No "read more," no obvious way to see the rest of the article. This is on iOS with Chrome.

Also seeing the behavior with recent The New Yorker articles.
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