5 ms·

> until no content on the internet can be trusted, and nothing left believable. You seem to be under the impression that this is not already the case. Why is t

by bgun 7y ago

> until no content on the internet can be trusted, and nothing left believable. You seem to be under the impression that this is not already the case. Why is that?

a1369209993 7y ago
> Why is that [not already the case]? Because the internet/web was created by technical and mathematical oriented people - programmers, electrical engineers, researchers - who are typically much less committed to systemic deceit than marketers and propagandists. Consequently, much of the initial content was posted out of a genuine desire to inform rather than deceive people.
- freeflight 7y ago
  But the Internet was created literally decades ago. By now the marketers and propagandists have long taken over, social media was just one out of their many trojan horses. "Content" has merely become an excuse to drive ad revenue and interactions up, lure users into signing up accounts, to harvest as much data about them as possible.
  - a1369209993 7y ago
    They said no content and nothing - there's still stuff (and people) left over from the early days. If the internet had been designed by marketers and propagandists from the get-go, that would not be the case, so I think "because marketers and propagandists were not originally involved (and originally is suffiently recently)" is a valid answer to "Why is the internet not (yet) devoid of anything trustworthy or believable?".
    - freeflight 7y ago
      > there's still stuff (and people) left over from the early days Very little stuff and only a very few people, they've also been busy warning about this whole situation, even offering solutions [0] that sound rather fantastical in their probability of being realizable. So while you are technically correct; There's still a little tiny bit of trustworthy content left on the www, it doesn't make really that much of a difference when 70%+ of the webs traffic is systematically routed past that to game the attention economy and facilitate mass-scale data collection. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berners-lee-web-inventor-save-internet https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berne...

by bgun 7y ago

> until no content on the internet can be trusted, and nothing left believable. You seem to be under the impression that this is not already the case. Why is that?

a1369209993 7y ago

> Why is that [not already the case]? Because the internet/web was created by technical and mathematical oriented people - programmers, electrical engineers, researchers - who are typically much less committed to systemic deceit than marketers and propagandists. Consequently, much of the initial content was posted out of a genuine desire to inform rather than deceive people.

freeflight 7y ago
But the Internet was created literally decades ago. By now the marketers and propagandists have long taken over, social media was just one out of their many trojan horses. "Content" has merely become an excuse to drive ad revenue and interactions up, lure users into signing up accounts, to harvest as much data about them as possible.
- a1369209993 7y ago
  They said no content and nothing - there's still stuff (and people) left over from the early days. If the internet had been designed by marketers and propagandists from the get-go, that would not be the case, so I think "because marketers and propagandists were not originally involved (and originally is suffiently recently)" is a valid answer to "Why is the internet not (yet) devoid of anything trustworthy or believable?".
  - freeflight 7y ago
    > there's still stuff (and people) left over from the early days Very little stuff and only a very few people, they've also been busy warning about this whole situation, even offering solutions [0] that sound rather fantastical in their probability of being realizable. So while you are technically correct; There's still a little tiny bit of trustworthy content left on the www, it doesn't make really that much of a difference when 70%+ of the webs traffic is systematically routed past that to game the attention economy and facilitate mass-scale data collection. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berners-lee-web-inventor-save-internet https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berne...