That billion people can free themselves. They don’t need us ‘enlightened saviours’ coming to tell them what they should be doing.
Humans operate at community scale, not global scale. I don’t want a billion people in my community.
You might think that self-centered but it allows actual community bonds to form - on my instance last month I paid the $236 that someone was in arrears for their rent because they were part of my community and in need.
Ok, then don't think of the billion people. Think of someone in your close family or friends who is addicted to Instagram and is struggling with anxiety. Think of any kid you know whose socially ineptitude can clearly be linked to them growing up glued to their phone and computer screens.
You don't need to "save" them, but to think that they are all there out of their own volition and that there is no systemic change needed is quite apathetic.
And what do you expect me, specifically, to do about it? My ability to help those people doesn’t scale. Healthy social media also doesn’t scale - when it does then it becomes unhealthy.
It honestly sounds to me like you want my community to destroy itself in martyrdom.
There is a systemic change needed - break ‘em up. Break up facebook, break up twitter, put regulations in place that prevent them ever being able to scale like that on the backs of people’s attention again. The solution isn’t some kind of new business model.
I think those people would be equally addicted, anxious or inept on a 'healthy' platform, if such a thing could exist. Short of net-nannying every taxpaying American, there's no real way to stop people from hurting themselves with technology. It's entirely fair to say "not my problem" to something like this, what you're largely describing are self-enabled behavior loops.
You want the real blackpill? The back-shelf, hidden box with an expiry of 'sometime soon' pill?
There's no way to reconcile what everyone wants with a single platform, product or set of laws. Twitter flew on the borrowed wings of RSS and regular blogging, serial-killing every syndication platform it could find to sustain the business of information. It's the "solution" to our current problem, except it's got a history of being owned by despots and is struggling to turn a dime in a slight recession. What Elon Musk did was a more extremist version of what Dorsey would be forced to do someday, which is why Jack and his shareholders folded.
In my opinion, what's happening right now is the inevitable curtain fall. The emperor is plainly naked, and we're still running articles about his new clothes.
Humans operate at community scale, not global scale. I don’t want a billion people in my community.
You might think that self-centered but it allows actual community bonds to form - on my instance last month I paid the $236 that someone was in arrears for their rent because they were part of my community and in need.