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Facebook/Snap/Gaming/Digital-Entertainment don't employ all that many people. I'd be surprised if the ratio of entertainers / audience is much different than i

Facebook/Snap/Gaming/Digital-Entertainment don't employ all that many people. I'd be surprised if the ratio of entertainers / audience is much different than it was for, say, stars of silent movies 100 years ago, even though Charlie Chaplin wasn't doing something that could be termed "needed for society to function".

builditand 9y ago
Ah, but he did. See [The Great Dictator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator) for example. For us to function we need people like Chaplin to show us (in a way or another) what's going on in the world.
- mrob 9y ago
  The Great Dictator is one of the few films with obvious value beyond entertainment, because it's a vaccine against Triumph of the Will. Triumph of the Will is a skillfully made propaganda film, and if you have no awareness of how it works then it would be easy to leave with positive feelings about the Nazis, even if only subconsciously. But once you've seen The Great Dictator it becomes a joke. E.g. the low camera angles don't make Hitler look powerful, they just remind you of the extending chair scene. His exaggerated gestures no longer project confidence, and instead make you think of slapstick routines. John Cleese's silly walk had the same effect on the goose-stepping scenes. It's art that makes people more rational, by transforming emotional manipulation tricks into comedy. It's beneficial even if you don't agree with all of the politics of it (e.g. Chaplin's call for open borders).
rubidium 9y ago
Oh, that's an interesting question. I've seen a graph of (US) advertising spend vs GDP which seems to hold constant over the last 70 years. But to lump all FB/snap/twitter into entertainment+advertising and get % of the population working for those companies would be interesting.
- mseebach 9y ago
  But then you start doing violence to the categories. Twitter/Facebook certainly have entertainment functions, but they also have tentacles reaching deep into publishing and news. Now, suddenly a like for like comparison needs to include newspapermen, typesetters, printers and papermill workers.
  - rubidium 9y ago
    Well get to work then : ) But seriously, I hope data-minded grad students/sociologists are investigating this more.

builditand 9y ago

Ah, but he did. See [The Great Dictator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator) for example. For us to function we need people like Chaplin to show us (in a way or another) what's going on in the world.

mrob 9y ago
The Great Dictator is one of the few films with obvious value beyond entertainment, because it's a vaccine against Triumph of the Will. Triumph of the Will is a skillfully made propaganda film, and if you have no awareness of how it works then it would be easy to leave with positive feelings about the Nazis, even if only subconsciously. But once you've seen The Great Dictator it becomes a joke. E.g. the low camera angles don't make Hitler look powerful, they just remind you of the extending chair scene. His exaggerated gestures no longer project confidence, and instead make you think of slapstick routines. John Cleese's silly walk had the same effect on the goose-stepping scenes. It's art that makes people more rational, by transforming emotional manipulation tricks into comedy. It's beneficial even if you don't agree with all of the politics of it (e.g. Chaplin's call for open borders).

rubidium 9y ago

Oh, that's an interesting question. I've seen a graph of (US) advertising spend vs GDP which seems to hold constant over the last 70 years. But to lump all FB/snap/twitter into entertainment+advertising and get % of the population working for those companies would be interesting.

mseebach 9y ago
But then you start doing violence to the categories. Twitter/Facebook certainly have entertainment functions, but they also have tentacles reaching deep into publishing and news. Now, suddenly a like for like comparison needs to include newspapermen, typesetters, printers and papermill workers.
- rubidium 9y ago
  Well get to work then : ) But seriously, I hope data-minded grad students/sociologists are investigating this more.