I will hear a leftist say "if it had not been for tikTok ..." or "if it had not been for twitter ...
-
I will hear a leftist say "if it had not been for tikTok ..." or "if it had not been for twitter ... " these huge social movements like Black Lives Matter would have never been possible. There would have been, they say, a media black out.
And they are correct. And yet, I still detect little sense of urgency or interest from the same people in educating and promoting social media that we can control like the fediverse.
The microphone can be unplugged the cameras cut off at any moment.
@WeirdWriter @futurebird Remember that time when twitter made Egypt a democracy? Wait, no, I am being told that is in fact not what happened. Sorry.
-
I will hear a leftist say "if it had not been for tikTok ..." or "if it had not been for twitter ... " these huge social movements like Black Lives Matter would have never been possible. There would have been, they say, a media black out.
And they are correct. And yet, I still detect little sense of urgency or interest from the same people in educating and promoting social media that we can control like the fediverse.
The microphone can be unplugged the cameras cut off at any moment.
@futurebird
I think most of them genuinely have no idea it can be done, even on a micro level.Towards the end of my time on Twitter, I would constantly see people complaining about what was on their feed, and when I would ask if they had it set to the algorithm (Home, the default) or their follows in chronological order, they a) had no idea what I was asking, and b) seemed to have no interest in opening a menu and clicking a button.
-
When I say "we should control our own social media" people think I'm crazy. Like I'm saying "we should control and manage our own water utility" ... it seems prudent, yes, but how could we possibly have the power and wealth needed to make it happen?
But that's the thing about social media... it is possible. We could just run it ourselves. The money needed is large but not vast or insurmountable. (I won't pretend it's free) "content creators" should understand this.
@futurebird Something I've been thinking about for the last two years--for some reason--is the need to start controlling our own media, period, and communication. I'm having trouble seeing us staying as fully digital; I think we'll need to go back to more analog tools.
-
And powerful people have recognized the impact of these platforms. We've witnessed vast changes to bring this media under greater control.
I get the sense that many people just think "well if it gets bad I will move then."
But how would you know?
How would you know that it has "gotten bad" -- you didn't know in the era of the national nightly news. You won't know in the future.It is already happening and you don't know.
If you are a political commentator or if you are a creative person who makes art, music, video essays or other content you want lots of people to see your work. That is why you made it. So it's unreasonable to say you should boycott or avoid the most effective ways to reach the greatest number of people.
I do think it's reasonable, however to ask that you educate your fans on the alternatives, engage with them. This is part of "doing the work" too.
-
@futurebird Something I've been thinking about for the last two years--for some reason--is the need to start controlling our own media, period, and communication. I'm having trouble seeing us staying as fully digital; I think we'll need to go back to more analog tools.
That's part of it too.
-
I will hear a leftist say "if it had not been for tikTok ..." or "if it had not been for twitter ... " these huge social movements like Black Lives Matter would have never been possible. There would have been, they say, a media black out.
And they are correct. And yet, I still detect little sense of urgency or interest from the same people in educating and promoting social media that we can control like the fediverse.
The microphone can be unplugged the cameras cut off at any moment.
Agree. And we've already seen leaks that indicate the people who run Twitter are putting their fingers on the scales and controlling what goes out the door.
-
@futurebird Something I've been thinking about for the last two years--for some reason--is the need to start controlling our own media, period, and communication. I'm having trouble seeing us staying as fully digital; I think we'll need to go back to more analog tools.
@dnkboston @futurebird @joepie91
Its less about the specific technology and more about who controls it.
The age gating censorship laws being rammed through western democracies are a big reason we might end up back on paper zines. But what's important is sharing accurate news about the abuses of the rich and powerful and that can be done with digital tools as simple as a mailing list, though i do admit video is more compelling so some way of distributing video independently of rich racists would be good.
I think @ajroach42 attempts to build local community media are a particular interesting attempt to build culture outside of the limitations imposed by the rich.
-
Agree. And we've already seen leaks that indicate the people who run Twitter are putting their fingers on the scales and controlling what goes out the door.
In fact, there was an article in which there was a leak saying they deliberately allowed a fraction of the left-leaning stuff to go out the door, but otherwise it was all right leaning. The only reason they let the left stuff go out was so that it wasn't apparent that they were censoring everything.
-
@dnkboston @futurebird @joepie91
Its less about the specific technology and more about who controls it.
The age gating censorship laws being rammed through western democracies are a big reason we might end up back on paper zines. But what's important is sharing accurate news about the abuses of the rich and powerful and that can be done with digital tools as simple as a mailing list, though i do admit video is more compelling so some way of distributing video independently of rich racists would be good.
I think @ajroach42 attempts to build local community media are a particular interesting attempt to build culture outside of the limitations imposed by the rich.
@alienghic @dnkboston @futurebird @ajroach42 On the digital front, I believe Waag (in the Netherlands) recently did a real-world experiment with a neighbourhood meshnet. Not just techies, but an actual neighbourhood with a wide diversity of residents participating. It was apparently very positively received, and the biggest problem was the poor reliability, people couldn't rely on being able to communicate through it.
-
If you are a political commentator or if you are a creative person who makes art, music, video essays or other content you want lots of people to see your work. That is why you made it. So it's unreasonable to say you should boycott or avoid the most effective ways to reach the greatest number of people.
I do think it's reasonable, however to ask that you educate your fans on the alternatives, engage with them. This is part of "doing the work" too.
@futurebird not me. my work is for the select few able to dig it out from the obscure social media platforms i use, not for the unwashed masses. if i saw too many readers in one place i'd open fire
-
J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
-
If you are a political commentator or if you are a creative person who makes art, music, video essays or other content you want lots of people to see your work. That is why you made it. So it's unreasonable to say you should boycott or avoid the most effective ways to reach the greatest number of people.
I do think it's reasonable, however to ask that you educate your fans on the alternatives, engage with them. This is part of "doing the work" too.
@futurebird It would already be good if anyone trying to reach an audience created a presence on the Fediverse AND of course, told people about it repeatedly, flaunting the advantages of independent distributed networks. I still have a Twitter account with my Mastodon address visible in my handle. I don't post there, though because it's trash as is Instagram.
-
@futurebird It would already be good if anyone trying to reach an audience created a presence on the Fediverse AND of course, told people about it repeatedly, flaunting the advantages of independent distributed networks. I still have a Twitter account with my Mastodon address visible in my handle. I don't post there, though because it's trash as is Instagram.
I mean there are certain things "good leftists" do. You help your local community organizations. You read and try to understand the world on a deeper level than what shows up in the news. You try to help the people you see who need help. You try to pressure companies, the government and organizations to be better.
You don't shop at odious businesses if you can avoid it.
You move away from corporate social media and promote alternatives ought to be on that list.
-
@dnkboston @futurebird @joepie91
Its less about the specific technology and more about who controls it.
The age gating censorship laws being rammed through western democracies are a big reason we might end up back on paper zines. But what's important is sharing accurate news about the abuses of the rich and powerful and that can be done with digital tools as simple as a mailing list, though i do admit video is more compelling so some way of distributing video independently of rich racists would be good.
I think @ajroach42 attempts to build local community media are a particular interesting attempt to build culture outside of the limitations imposed by the rich.
@alienghic One of the big issues with the communication channels and outlets we're using now is cost. A lot of valuable information is already behind paywalls, and many outlets aren't reliably publishing thorough coverage.
I see the limitations of 'zines et al, and I don't know how much we can depend on citizen journalism to give us everything we need. But I'm already correcting for institutional bias when I read American coverage.
-
I mean there are certain things "good leftists" do. You help your local community organizations. You read and try to understand the world on a deeper level than what shows up in the news. You try to help the people you see who need help. You try to pressure companies, the government and organizations to be better.
You don't shop at odious businesses if you can avoid it.
You move away from corporate social media and promote alternatives ought to be on that list.
There are problems with the idea of "the good leftist" and sometimes there are limitations on what people can do. I used amazon's "dot" when I couldn't walk. I hated using an amazon product, but it was already set up and I needed to turn the lights on and off and manage my crutches.
But I won't let the limitations of individual action paralyze me. I will do the things that I can and glory in the way my little actions are amplified when others join in.
Social media is part of that.
-
I mean there are certain things "good leftists" do. You help your local community organizations. You read and try to understand the world on a deeper level than what shows up in the news. You try to help the people you see who need help. You try to pressure companies, the government and organizations to be better.
You don't shop at odious businesses if you can avoid it.
You move away from corporate social media and promote alternatives ought to be on that list.
@futurebird I agree on 100% of this. I am adamant about Meta being toxic. I never stop begging people to use Signal rather than WhatsFapp. I refuse to use it so we use email.
-
There are problems with the idea of "the good leftist" and sometimes there are limitations on what people can do. I used amazon's "dot" when I couldn't walk. I hated using an amazon product, but it was already set up and I needed to turn the lights on and off and manage my crutches.
But I won't let the limitations of individual action paralyze me. I will do the things that I can and glory in the way my little actions are amplified when others join in.
Social media is part of that.
I've been trying to establish a pollinator garden in my park. For months I've come to the park and picked up trash in this one little area, because that is what I could do.
One day I came and someone else was there picking up trash too. "I see you all the time! It makes our park nicer."
I could weep.
I have more than just two hands.
-
I've been trying to establish a pollinator garden in my park. For months I've come to the park and picked up trash in this one little area, because that is what I could do.
One day I came and someone else was there picking up trash too. "I see you all the time! It makes our park nicer."
I could weep.
I have more than just two hands.
I thought "I can't clean this whole park, it's too big."
It turns out that might not be true. Maybe I can.
-
There are problems with the idea of "the good leftist" and sometimes there are limitations on what people can do. I used amazon's "dot" when I couldn't walk. I hated using an amazon product, but it was already set up and I needed to turn the lights on and off and manage my crutches.
But I won't let the limitations of individual action paralyze me. I will do the things that I can and glory in the way my little actions are amplified when others join in.
Social media is part of that.
@futurebird I did order one item from Amazon after an exhaustive search for it everywhere. But compared to the thousands spent over the years, including Prime Video (which we got for half off), I'm off AMZ.
-
I thought "I can't clean this whole park, it's too big."
It turns out that might not be true. Maybe I can.
@futurebird With enough time...
-
That's part of it too.
@futurebird @dnkboston @joepie91 I've wrestled with this a lot, since a few years ago I was in a largish left group and was astonished how dependent it was on "free" commercial software, especially Google Docs. Most of the tech people in the group argued for using self-hosted FOSS software, but the majority pushed back hard against that idea.
I pointed out to an outspoken role-playing game designer, on her Discord channel, that there was a Fediverse instance focused on games that I knew several game designers were on, and others focused on issues she cared about, but she and others in the channel complained that anyone could set up a Fediverse instance.
A few weeks ago I was talking to an animal rights activist who was publishing updates on Instagram. I suggested he set up a Fedi account, and pointed out an instance for vegans that I thought would be a good place to start. He said he couldn't bear to deal with another social media outlet.
