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Humans more or less use the media and information found online to confirm their deep rooted beliefs about the world. Even without facebook or twitter, organizat

Humans more or less use the media and information found online to confirm their deep rooted beliefs about the world. Even without facebook or twitter, organizations will prop up to cater to this. The path to authoritarianism is more and more deeply rooted in growing inequality of the world which technology has expidited further. You could literally map wealth inequality to rising populism since the time of ancient rome.

meowface 8y ago
Exactly. It's extremely predictable and stereotypical that we tech workers would make this argument, and there's the whole "it's difficult to get someone to understand something when their salary depends upon their not understanding it" thing. But it seems obvious to me that the problem is people and society, and the media (which are just giving the people what they want, mostly), not the social network companies. (The Cambridge Analytica incident is kind of a separate topic, and does deserve criticism.)
- claudiawerner 8y ago
  I would argue that as products of society and society's productive make up (including its economic and ideological spheres), social networking giants are not the root of social ills. But the structure of these networks originates from the same place that society's problems come from, and in my view this makes the problem worse by serving as a way by which society reproduces itself. A famous German philosopher once said that a society that does not reproduce itself economically (through production and consumption) will be finished within a week. Much later a French philosopher noted this is just as true for ideology which must be reproduced (through schools, church, the media, entertainment and social media) or society will change for better or worse.
chillacy 8y ago
This cycle of inequality and (sometimes violent) revolution is pretty cyclical. I’m afraid that if we don’t address this democratically then we’re in for big changes ahead. The danger is losing perspective while we live in a costal city bubble. Only 35% of Americans complete 4 year college. Consider your 5 closest friends, if they all have a college degree, the probability you arrived at this state randomly is less than 1%. The median American makes 38k, 40% can’t pay an unexpected $400 expense, and retail is the most common job. The next recession is not going to be kind to 9 out of 10 Americans.

meowface 8y ago

Exactly. It's extremely predictable and stereotypical that we tech workers would make this argument, and there's the whole "it's difficult to get someone to understand something when their salary depends upon their not understanding it" thing. But it seems obvious to me that the problem is people and society, and the media (which are just giving the people what they want, mostly), not the social network companies. (The Cambridge Analytica incident is kind of a separate topic, and does deserve criticism.)

claudiawerner 8y ago
I would argue that as products of society and society's productive make up (including its economic and ideological spheres), social networking giants are not the root of social ills. But the structure of these networks originates from the same place that society's problems come from, and in my view this makes the problem worse by serving as a way by which society reproduces itself. A famous German philosopher once said that a society that does not reproduce itself economically (through production and consumption) will be finished within a week. Much later a French philosopher noted this is just as true for ideology which must be reproduced (through schools, church, the media, entertainment and social media) or society will change for better or worse.

chillacy 8y ago

This cycle of inequality and (sometimes violent) revolution is pretty cyclical. I’m afraid that if we don’t address this democratically then we’re in for big changes ahead. The danger is losing perspective while we live in a costal city bubble. Only 35% of Americans complete 4 year college. Consider your 5 closest friends, if they all have a college degree, the probability you arrived at this state randomly is less than 1%. The median American makes 38k, 40% can’t pay an unexpected $400 expense, and retail is the most common job. The next recession is not going to be kind to 9 out of 10 Americans.