cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17602033
You are the victim of a con — one so pernicious that you’ve likely tuned it out despite the fact it’s part of almost every part of your life. It hurts everybody you know in different ways, and it hurts people more based on their socioeconomic status. It pokes and prods and twists millions of little parts of your life, and it’s everywhere, so you have to ignore it, because complaining about it feels futile, like complaining about the weather.
It isn’t. You’re battered by the Rot Economy, and a tech industry that has become so obsessed with growth that you, the paying customer, are a nuisance to be mitigated far more than a participant in an exchange of value. A death cult has taken over the markets, using software as a mechanism to extract value at scale in the pursuit of growth at the cost of user happiness.
These people want everything from you — to control every moment you spend working with them so that you may provide them with more ways to make money, even if doing so doesn’t involve you getting anything else in return. Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and a majority of tech platforms are at war with the user, and, in the absence of any kind of consistent standards or effective regulations, the entire tech ecosystem has followed suit. A kind of Coalition of the Willing of the worst players in hyper-growth tech capitalism.
Things are being made linearly worse in the pursuit of growth in every aspect of our digital lives, and it’s because everything must grow, at all costs, at all times, unrelentingly, even if it makes the technology we use every day consistently harmful.
This year has, on some level, radicalized me, and today I’m going to explain why. It’s going to be a long one, because I need you to fully grasp the seriousness and widespread nature of the problem.
Yep. It's all about what you value the most - Your personal privacy and integrity or watching specific people slap a ball with a stick.
I understand the attitude of “if you want a curated stream of music or a free app, you need to accept that you are giving up your privacy to get that.” Like, pay for the app or buy the music and curate it yourself as an alternative. Just like people have done for generations.
But we’re talking about a thing that just four years ago required only a paper ticket that could be purchased with cash suddenly requiring an app. The product didn’t change in any way, it just requires an app now. I think everyone should be angry about that.
Sure and I agree. That's why I mention that I'm bummed out about not being able to attend big venue concerts any more. But I know why they're doing it and I understand the cost.
As far as I can se, every person who understand what this means is angry about it. But once one accepts that the vast majority of people are NPC's, not willing to sacrificy even such a meaningless thing as entertainment... This is what we get.
In fairness with the warped society we have, entertainment has become a value in it self, way more valuable than building a better world for ourselves and those who comes after. A consumer society to the max.
I've tried warning, I've offered alternatives, I've talked about the cost - But instead of people attending no-app-required baseball matches and build a new industry they begrudginly use the app, complain about signing away their privacy and just keep on eroding the world.
What are we to do but try to save ourselves?