5 ms·
Speaking as someone who started working in the mid 90s, we're definitely well past The Internet's "Golden Hour". These days we can see first hand just how much
by sundvor 3y ago
Speaking as someone who started working in the mid 90s, we're definitely well past The Internet's "Golden Hour".
These days we can see first hand just how much societal degeneracy it has helped facilitate. All the latest Culture Wars, malice, scams, cancellations, filter bubbles, misinformation madness etc would not be possible without the Internet.
This easily helps explain the point of looking backwards to when the tech was just just that, tech.
- TheSpiceIsLife 3y ago> All the latest Culture Wars, malice, scams, cancellations, filter bubbles, misinformation madness etc would not be possible without the Internet. The latest, sure, by definition. But nah, people were plenty good at getting worked up much earlier than the internet.
- api 3y agoSearch for “satanic panic” for a TV era example.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoGo back. Search for "yellow journalism".
- JohnFen 3y ago"Remember the Maine!"
- rchaud 3y agoSatanic panic happened in the US, UK and that's it. The ills of the modern internet are globally distributed.
- cassianoleal 3y agoYes but not at this speed and scale.
- sundvor 3y agoYep, didn't spell that out - but indeed, this.
- chrisco255 3y agoCounter point to this, is that centralized mass media enabled early 20th century fascism and communism to thrive. Hitler's head of propaganda, Goebbels, supplied subsidized radios to the Germans and used it to funnel propaganda into German households at the speed of light. Goebbels had this to say about it: "It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio....It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the airplane and the radio. ...[Radio] reached the entire nation, regardless of class, standing, or religion. That was primarily the result of the tight centralization, the strong reporting, and the up-to-date nature of the German radio....Above all it is necessary to clearly centralize all radio activities, to place spiritual tasks ahead of technical ones,...to provide a clear worldview" While a decentralized internet may host extreme views in certain pockets, it also enables a diversity of viewpoints to be expressed, which more often than not serve to regulate those in power as well as inform those without.
- JohnFen 3y agoI used to think as you on this point, but the past couple of years have filled me with great doubt about how true this actually is.
- chrisco255 3y agoAbout how true what is? What has happened on the internet in the past few years that is comparable to Nazi radio control and propaganda? Maybe the censurious social media apps booting off people with opposing opinions to liberal mainstream in collusion with intelligence agencies actively embedded in their organizations? But that just underscores the dangers of centralization. I suspect, based on your posturing in the reply, however, that you've been convinced that more control is necessary to counter extreme x or y wing viewpoints. If that be the case, then you would find great solace in the writings of Goebbels. I for one hold freedom of speech to be sancrosanct, and being a student of history will never waver from its defense.
- arroz 3y agoI agree to an extent, especially about misinformation madness Scams however always existed
- GoblinSlayer 3y agoMisinformation existed long before scams: monkeys lie.
- zabana 3y ago[flagged]