> But the platforms enabling this activism have also shown a disconcerting indifference to these struggles. After all, their priority is to keep users engaged – to keep us clicking, scrolling, and reacting. This drive for engagement has often led to the commodification of activism, reducing profoundly personal and political struggles to hashtags and trend cycles.
Yes even HackerNews Which i really love. Discussion is great but short-lived on to the next best thing. Designed to keep us moving and prevents us from being contemplative and forming groups that can address the problems of modern society. We need to move away from these systems that are designed around trends. Discussion needs to be threaded by topics that need addressing and stay relevant until there is a a resolution or choice-point. But its hard when our society is built around these structures. I don't see a way out at the moment.
BTW. Thanks to the author that posted this. This topic has been on my mind as well. Ill keep it archived for future reading, when we find ourselves in a authoritarian state that's much worse than it is now. If anyone has a links to organizations that are focused on combating our current social and political trends, post them.
I have been looking at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities[0] as of late, looking into ways I can help create a new world with others who care about humanity. Hannah Arendt was a American author that wrote about totalitarianism during WWII. IMHO its relevant today as we are moving towards stonger forms of authoritarianism.
> Designed to keep us moving and prevents us from being contemplative and forming groups that can address the problems of modern society.
It is sorta like the promise of cyberspace failed [0]. I wonder if something killed/smothered it or it was simply poorly formulated to begin with.
[0]
https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
I share a lot of the sentiments expressed in the post, but the reality is that the people who feel this way are a tiny, tiny niche compared to the general population, and we probably can't expect anything widely used and available to the population to cater to that niche.
But on an internet mostly oriented around mega-platforms, it will likely become increasingly hard for the niche players to survive. I now understand how old people felt when the places, experiences, and cultural trends they understood died out.
>Back then, the internet was a largely untamed frontier, a boundless expanse waiting to be discovered. You didn’t so much surf the web as explore it, encountering unknown territories and unexpected gems.
This is the part that for me, hits the hardest. Is there such a similar "untamed frontier" left in 2025?
> But the platforms enabling this activism have also shown a disconcerting indifference to these struggles. After all, their priority is to keep users engaged – to keep us clicking, scrolling, and reacting. This drive for engagement has often led to the commodification of activism, reducing profoundly personal and political struggles to hashtags and trend cycles.
Yes even HackerNews Which i really love. Discussion is great but short-lived on to the next best thing. Designed to keep us moving and prevents us from being contemplative and forming groups that can address the problems of modern society. We need to move away from these systems that are designed around trends. Discussion needs to be threaded by topics that need addressing and stay relevant until there is a a resolution or choice-point. But its hard when our society is built around these structures. I don't see a way out at the moment.
BTW. Thanks to the author that posted this. This topic has been on my mind as well. Ill keep it archived for future reading, when we find ourselves in a authoritarian state that's much worse than it is now. If anyone has a links to organizations that are focused on combating our current social and political trends, post them.
I have been looking at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities[0] as of late, looking into ways I can help create a new world with others who care about humanity. Hannah Arendt was a American author that wrote about totalitarianism during WWII. IMHO its relevant today as we are moving towards stonger forms of authoritarianism.
[0]: https://hac.bard.edu
> Designed to keep us moving and prevents us from being contemplative and forming groups that can address the problems of modern society.
It is sorta like the promise of cyberspace failed [0]. I wonder if something killed/smothered it or it was simply poorly formulated to begin with. [0] https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
The cyberspace was colonized.
I share a lot of the sentiments expressed in the post, but the reality is that the people who feel this way are a tiny, tiny niche compared to the general population, and we probably can't expect anything widely used and available to the population to cater to that niche.
But on an internet mostly oriented around mega-platforms, it will likely become increasingly hard for the niche players to survive. I now understand how old people felt when the places, experiences, and cultural trends they understood died out.
>Back then, the internet was a largely untamed frontier, a boundless expanse waiting to be discovered. You didn’t so much surf the web as explore it, encountering unknown territories and unexpected gems.
This is the part that for me, hits the hardest. Is there such a similar "untamed frontier" left in 2025?
its like anything. a small town, peaceful, quiet, then suddenly gets flooded, gentrified, prices go up, becomes an expensive urban hell.
whenever soemthing becoems discovered it goes to shit. some kind of law.