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If we’re going to talk about “drag on human progress and welfare”, there are much bigger fish to fry in the Tech world than a 30% surcharge by an App Store. Yo

If we’re going to talk about “drag on human progress and welfare”, there are much bigger fish to fry in the Tech world than a 30% surcharge by an App Store. You could start with any social media company and in my opinion, they surpass anything Apple has done as far as a “drag on human progress & welfare”.

gojomo 5y ago
Whataboutism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism) is pretty boring unless we were specifically trying to create a ranked list of the worst things. Also, without an explanation of why "in your opinion" "any social media company" is worse, you're just declaring a personal bias - and vaguely, too. (Is social media company Snapchat more destructive than Apple's App Store policies?) If you have some larger grudge against some specific social media companies, why not write it up, with reasoning & naming names, in an appropriate place? Why only allude to it, to make Apple's destructiveness seem smaller?
- mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
  The parent commenter brought up “drag on human progress and welfare” and keeping the topic to Tech companies I was pointing out there are far worse. There are studies that show social media causing mental health issues and issues with spreading misinformation, many have shown up here on HN. I was stating my opinion which should be obvious, but maybe it’s not, every comment where you type into a comment text box is an opinion. I don’t have a grudge, just think the contributions to humanity by social media companies are far less than the problems they cause. The hypocrisy on HN is funny sometimes, many times articles/comments about startups are about monetizing and charging customers more, raising capital, etc. and then for large companies they charge too much and it’s a “drag on human progress and welfare”?
- CharlesW 5y ago
  There are many studies on social media's engagement-at-all-costs effects on individuals and society at large, some performed (with all positive bits socialized) by the social media platforms themselves.[1] For a balanced view, you could do worse than starting with a search for "social media" on Google Scholar. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=google+scholar+social+media&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=google+scholar+social+m... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/16/facebook-files-internal-research-harms/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/16/faceboo...
  - gojomo 5y ago
    Perhaps, but how is that relevant to a discussion of the destructiveness of Apple's power & policies? Does it excuse them somehow? Are you sure App Store dynamics don't, overall, increase the power of the worst social platforms?

gojomo 5y ago

Whataboutism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism) is pretty boring unless we were specifically trying to create a ranked list of the worst things. Also, without an explanation of why "in your opinion" "any social media company" is worse, you're just declaring a personal bias - and vaguely, too. (Is social media company Snapchat more destructive than Apple's App Store policies?) If you have some larger grudge against some specific social media companies, why not write it up, with reasoning & naming names, in an appropriate place? Why only allude to it, to make Apple's destructiveness seem smaller?

mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
The parent commenter brought up “drag on human progress and welfare” and keeping the topic to Tech companies I was pointing out there are far worse. There are studies that show social media causing mental health issues and issues with spreading misinformation, many have shown up here on HN. I was stating my opinion which should be obvious, but maybe it’s not, every comment where you type into a comment text box is an opinion. I don’t have a grudge, just think the contributions to humanity by social media companies are far less than the problems they cause. The hypocrisy on HN is funny sometimes, many times articles/comments about startups are about monetizing and charging customers more, raising capital, etc. and then for large companies they charge too much and it’s a “drag on human progress and welfare”?
CharlesW 5y ago
There are many studies on social media's engagement-at-all-costs effects on individuals and society at large, some performed (with all positive bits socialized) by the social media platforms themselves.[1] For a balanced view, you could do worse than starting with a search for "social media" on Google Scholar. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=google+scholar+social+media&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=google+scholar+social+m... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/16/facebook-files-internal-research-harms/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/16/faceboo...
- gojomo 5y ago
  Perhaps, but how is that relevant to a discussion of the destructiveness of Apple's power & policies? Does it excuse them somehow? Are you sure App Store dynamics don't, overall, increase the power of the worst social platforms?