4 ms·

Is instagram really primarily "computer technology", or is it primarily a social phenomenon? Yes, the technology broadly enables that social phenomenon, but it

Is instagram really primarily "computer technology", or is it primarily a social phenomenon? Yes, the technology broadly enables that social phenomenon, but it doesn't drive it. I don't think instagram was engineered to be what it was today, users used it that way and Facebook happily picked that up and optimized. But it's not like they somehow created a demand in people to compare their lives with others', present themselves as happier/more successful/better than they really are etc; it just gives them the tools to use it.

Arainach 1y ago
It's a computer technology. Computers, and the scale they enable, are dystopian enablers of late-stage capitalism, fascism, and other exploitation. Computers are the difference. While you could in theory pay a bunch of people to watch a bunch of cameras and listen to a bunch of microphones it was so expensive that no one outside of East Germany or Moscow ever had to seriously worry about the threat. Computers changed that. While in theory someone could look up a ton of information about you and precisely target ads to influence your behavior precisely, that wasn't a serious threat until computers. Neither were metrics and social dopamine triggers designed to keep you literally addicted to screens, voting campaign manipulation by hypertargeted disinformation campaigns, your job being replaced by a machine that illegally grabbed a bunch of art and can now spit out exact copies, or any of a thousand things computers are doing today.
- AdrianB1 1y ago
  I think that Adolf disagrees: if anything, computers make fascism not possible. Long gone are the days he was elected and long gone are the days Germans built and operated extermination camps in silence, unknown to the world. That cannot happen again with computers as they are the opposite of silence.
  - homarp 1y ago
    /S ?
    - rbanffy 1y ago
      Hopefully
  - rbanffy 1y ago
    Peter Thiel, is that you?
  - graemep 1y ago
    Computers and associated technologies are getting increasingly centrally controlled. Almost all mobile phones are controlled by two American companies, social media is controlled by a handful of companies, email by a handful of providers, so is streaming media. China and a few other countries have demonstrated that they can control what their citizens here. Multiple democratic countries are pushing on-device scanning. I would have agreed with you 20 years ago, but now I think computers make central control (and therefore control of the flow of information) a lot easier.
- luckylion 1y ago
  There has been more fascism before there were modern computers than after, so I'm not sure how they "enable" fascism. Exploitation? Slavery was (relative to population; and likely more so if you adjust for the changing definition) more numerous before modern technology, and it remains primarily in underdeveloped countries. I get being unhappy about the world and what not, and it's fine to feel skeptical towards technology, but we shouldn't let it confuse our perception of reality.

Arainach 1y ago

It's a computer technology. Computers, and the scale they enable, are dystopian enablers of late-stage capitalism, fascism, and other exploitation. Computers are the difference. While you could in theory pay a bunch of people to watch a bunch of cameras and listen to a bunch of microphones it was so expensive that no one outside of East Germany or Moscow ever had to seriously worry about the threat. Computers changed that. While in theory someone could look up a ton of information about you and precisely target ads to influence your behavior precisely, that wasn't a serious threat until computers. Neither were metrics and social dopamine triggers designed to keep you literally addicted to screens, voting campaign manipulation by hypertargeted disinformation campaigns, your job being replaced by a machine that illegally grabbed a bunch of art and can now spit out exact copies, or any of a thousand things computers are doing today.

AdrianB1 1y ago
I think that Adolf disagrees: if anything, computers make fascism not possible. Long gone are the days he was elected and long gone are the days Germans built and operated extermination camps in silence, unknown to the world. That cannot happen again with computers as they are the opposite of silence.
- homarp 1y ago
  /S ?
  - rbanffy 1y ago
    Hopefully
- rbanffy 1y ago
  Peter Thiel, is that you?
- graemep 1y ago
  Computers and associated technologies are getting increasingly centrally controlled. Almost all mobile phones are controlled by two American companies, social media is controlled by a handful of companies, email by a handful of providers, so is streaming media. China and a few other countries have demonstrated that they can control what their citizens here. Multiple democratic countries are pushing on-device scanning. I would have agreed with you 20 years ago, but now I think computers make central control (and therefore control of the flow of information) a lot easier.
luckylion 1y ago
There has been more fascism before there were modern computers than after, so I'm not sure how they "enable" fascism. Exploitation? Slavery was (relative to population; and likely more so if you adjust for the changing definition) more numerous before modern technology, and it remains primarily in underdeveloped countries. I get being unhappy about the world and what not, and it's fine to feel skeptical towards technology, but we shouldn't let it confuse our perception of reality.