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"...when all experience can be deconstructed and reconfigured, there become simply too many choices. And in the absence of any credible, noncommercial guides fo
by overthemoon 4y ago
"...when all experience can be deconstructed and reconfigured, there become simply too many choices. And in the absence of any credible, noncommercial guides for living, the freedom to choose is about as "liberating" as a bad acid trip: each quantum is as good as the next, and the only standard of an assembly's quality is its weirdness, incongruity, its ability to stand out from a crowd of other image-constructs and wow some Audience."[0]
The quote about the purpose of terms like "content" and "content creator" is spot on. It's the shipping container of the internet, a way to standardize units of things to sell and consume. Call it a necessity of the market, a knock-on effect of Amazon omni-retailers, but it's dehumanizing to reduce all creative effort to indistinguishable units, and strange that so many people take on the mantle willingly.
It's also expedient. Take a subset of YouTubers, they're likely doing different things across multiple disciplines. Video editing, music, education, performance, it's hard to name all those things. Easier to say "artist". Or "content creator". So I don't think it's all due to the machine.
[0] https://www.thefreelibrary.com/E+unibus+pluram%3A+television+and+U.S.+fiction.-a013952319 https://www.thefreelibrary.com/E+unibus+pluram%3A+television...
- zmgsabst 4y agoMy opinion is that the problem lies not with “content creation”, but with the intentional sabotage of tools to critique. Criticism is a necessary component of sense-making — and its destruction an intentional act to render us compliant.
- carapace 4y ago> intentional sabotage of tools to critique This is a bit vague. Your comment is itself an example of using a tool (HN) to critique, eh?
- zmgsabst 4y agoSure — and we’ve seen the removal of voting mechanisms on numerous platforms (YouTube, Netflix, etc) or the manipulation of review sites (such as RottenTomatoes) or programs to remove negative comments (such as YouTube movie trailers).
- carapace 4y agoAh, I think I see what you mean. But people can still criticize things e.g. on their blog or twitter? I guess maybe I don't understand the problem?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]