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> it can be forced to only allow content that advertisers approve of This was already the case before social media, mainstream media has always been controlled
by analyst74 6y ago
> it can be forced to only allow content that advertisers approve of
This was already the case before social media, mainstream media has always been controlled by the powerful. By "the powerful", I don't mean a secret cabal of white men deciding what happens, but that only people with enough resources, right connections can have an influence over what gets published. This is a pretty small group and not representative of the general public.
Today's backlashes against social media platforms is just the existing elites trying to take back their control. I think they're going to succeed, and we'll go back to a higher barrier of entry in terms of influencing public opinions, which can be both a good and bad thing.
- nl 6y ago> Today's backlashes against social media platforms is just the existing elites trying to take back their control. That's not really the case, as can been seen by the hate given to both FB and Twitter on HN.
- austhrow743 6y agoHN is largely populated with the 1%.
- nl 6y agoPerhaps, in the financial sense. But that's very different to the people who are typically refereed to as "the elites". That typically includes - for example - journalists - who aren't well paid at all.
- mdpopescu 6y agoJournalists aren't the elite. They're the PR people working for the elite.
- rapnie 6y agoThese generalizations and plattitudes are off the mark and dangerous. Sure, there are those working as PR for the elite, or they are honest journalists that work for MSM that is in the hands of the elites. Most journalists, especially investigative journalists want to do their job as well as they can, in an environment that is increasingly hostile to good journalism. We need these people to help keep our democracy intact.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoUsing elite as a term of derision is rather silly anyway. Who else would you want running the country than the most skilled and accomplished?
- hnaccy 6y agoPeople who have my interests in mind.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoI think you'll be waiting a long time for that. The most I hope for is that politicians interests might align with mine.
- sukilot 6y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_meritocracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_meritocracy I want a country where the median person is educated and grounded enough to make good choices about their community.
- Siira 6y agoThis might not be possible. (“Myth of egalitarianism”)
- nl 6y agoI think the whole "elites" terminology is silly. As a very broad generalisation it seems to mean "people who are richer or have a bigger voice than me who I disagree with.
- _tw9j 6y agoI doubt that is true. SV crowd may be loud but they aren't the majority on HN. Here's how I would group HN based on income, what keywords make them click and demography. 1. Old system admins, FOSS lovers, and retired due to age folks. Around median income. Keywords - vim, Emacs, firefox, awk, unions, inequality, privacy, new tech bad, linux, open source projects, go, haiku, history, and against-big-tech. 2. Fresh college graduate/ enrolled in CS or equivalents, teenagers, hermits, and recently laid off. Below median income or none. Keywords - education, degrees, FAANGs, interviews, privacy, income inequality, against-the-popular-social-media, against-google-apple, firefox, chrome, free-speech, thought-crime, and twittter. 3. SV crowd, founders, and employees of a big company. Above median income. Keywords - rent, homelessness, parenting, investment, CA, economics, happiness, open source but the profitable or commerical kind (kubernetes tool, cockroachdb, materialize), startups, climate change, big-company-profit-loss, apple, security and immigration. 4. Researchers and retired by choice. Above Median or low/no income. Passive consumers so they click on wide variety of keywords. Occasionally, participate in something related to their field. 5. Long time active HN members. Above median or median income. They click on most posts on the front page but comment in their own silos or interests. They help direct the site by filtering from new or stopping hoard of initial comments. 6. Marketers, sales and non-tech crowd. Median or lower median income. Keywords - medium article, heres-why, how-I, growth, crypto, ads, effective-ways-to, and the likes. This is only my observation so it will be biased and wrong but I definitely don't think hners are 1%.
- zozbot234 6y agoI like how all of these groups have some reason to oppose big-tech and social media. It's like the one thing we can all agree on here at HN.
- nl 6y agoI don't agree with either of these things.
- cnorthwood 6y agoMedian by what bar? Global, Silicon Valley, relative to their local area?