An era of the internet is ending, and we’re watching it happen practically in real time. Twitter has been on a steep and seemingly inexorable decline for, well, years, but especially since Elon Musk bought the company last fall and made a mess of the place. Reddit has spent the last couple of months self-immolating in similar ways, alienating its developers and users and hoping it can survive by sticking its head in the sand until the battle’s over. (I thought for a while that Reddit would eventually be the last good place left, but… nope.) TikTok remains ascendent — and looks ever more likely to be banned in some meaningful way. Instagram has turned into an entertainment platform; nobody’s on Facebook anymore…
My worry now, as a bunch of us leave Reddit (the “non-social media” social media site that gave us all some internet community without the horribleness of FB/IG, etc), is that now that these companies have cornered their “gateways to the internet,” there is no wrenching them back. Whether we like it or not, the bulk of people are…well, kinda stupid. They like reality TV and don’t fast forward through commercials and they watch big bang theory and never question if companies’ existences are a net positive. They just take them as a given.
Americans in particular seem to be pretty guilty of this, because our lifestyle lends itself to being spoon fed. It’s easier, makes life simpler…it’s just “the way things are done.” So while I’m hoping this is the beginning of us taking the internet back…I just find it hard to grasp onto any hope for big, positive change. I just feel like we’ve been beaten into submission and as the planet burns to a crisp, capitalism is just gripping the reigns tighter than ever because they know this should be about the time that people start to buck. But…we just don’t. I think even they’re surprised.
The best you can do for now is to inform people. Bring it up into conversation with your friends and family. Explain it in a way thats easy to understand and show the positives of Lemmy and other fediverse platforms. Also contribute as much as you can to the fediverse because it is nothing without active communities.
It’s hard for social media to go away for good.
But reddit will be like Facebook. Some people go there, but to the vast amount of people it’s a joke.
Hell, Fark is still going
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I do wonder though - and just to be clear, I really am just curious, not trying to argue because I don’t know shit about this - but I wonder how many of those monthly users only use it begrudgingly because it’s the only reliable way to get/stay in contact with a tech-illiterate relative.