Gatekeepers and bullies helped create norms that weeded out anti-social behaviors.
While it isn’t the best system because it was those people who decided what the norms were at least it was something.
I feel this especially when it comes to hateful politics but also creative endeavors. Back in the day people actually had to be talented to get sponsorships, reviews, more opportunities, etc. and now we have just no talent ass clowns posting “content” which in turn has led to the mass dumbing down of society and decrease in intellectual curiosity.
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> Back in the day people actually had to be talented to get sponsorships, reviews, more opportunities, etc.
This is a lot of rose tinted glasses nostalgia.
100% agree, and would even add to it that the isolation we used to have kept people from going absolutely crazy. If you ever thought to yourself “I wonder if the world is flat”, or “maybe airplanes are dropping chemicals on us in their trails that are controlling our minds”, The people around you would tell you that was just crazy and you would feel appropriately dumb for thinking that.
But now, thanks to the Internet, you can find 40 people that agree, and confirm your insane ideas.
Isn’t this a super popular opinion?
The internet was fine but social media ruined it.
It used to be hard enough to deal with and modulate and control the neverending stream of our own ongoing thoughts that never shut up, and now we still have to deal with that stream of our own thoughts as well as the neverending stream of thought of every other rando in the entire universe. Just a literal stream of everyone’s thoughts 24/7 that never ends.
Please go back and watch some television from the 60’s and tell me entertainment isn’t worlds better?
Also, a lot of folks can get their news first-person. Consider the fact Israel was able to get away with acting like they were victims in the western world for almost 80 years. And the same idea for Vietnam.
They said I was a no-talent ass clown.. but they were wrong: I’ve got talent!
Still an ass-clown, tho..
You do understand gatekeepers and bullies still exist right? Also why would people shitting on other people help them follow their dreams of whatever? Instead it would just shut them down.
Hell, it typically does the inverse as people who get bullied end up even more anti social, why do you think so many gay people were afraid to come out in the last previous decades. The same reason why so many people are afraid to seek help with mental health problems. Increasing inclusivity and destigmatizing mental health has done way more to help people than trying to bully them into being “normal”.
Then you have that wild take about how in the past people had to be talented to get opportunities. Take off the rose tinted glasses, it’s always been fucked up.
This isn’t an unpopular opinion it’s just missing context. Social media algorithms promote the dog shit takes and anyone with a hint of nuance is relegated to the unseen abyss because that’s not what generates engagement and sells ads. It’s not the internet, it’s the social media companies profiteering by destroying social cohesion.
I’d wager, at the end of the day, it was trickle down economics that has created our horrible society.
“Content” is no different than reality tv. You see a lot less reality tv shows and a lot more individual creators posting their own content.
It’s the same conversation as the reality tv conversation, the only difference is the platform. If no one became dumber by watching MTV reality shows, no one is becoming “dumber” simply watching a random girl talk about beauty product sponsorships.
The whole point of reality tv: some dummy filming their life, their life being plastered on tv and commercial breaks for various products
Whole point of content: some dummy posting/filming their life with various sponsorship breaks for various products.
There’s like 5 social media companies that account for basically ALL of the social media usage (what you’re referring to), and they are decidedly NOT democratically-run, and their content is A) super ad-based and often just littered with ads, which is not democratic, and B) has been shown by studies to push pro-business, right wing content. This is also not democratic.
I do see your point and it’s a valid one. My only counterpoint would be that there are a lot of talented, even genius-level creative people who have next to no resources and aren’t inherently good at networking. The internet gave them a voice, finally.
“Outsider art”: that has been the real victory of the internet. Maybe some of it should’ve remained hidden, but in principle I think it was good.
>back in the day people had to be talented
Bro what
Serious bullying causes mental issues. It does not help.
Also, people who were talented would get sponsorships and etc. is so untrue. Because a person with charisma, but who didn’t have talent can get the same sponsorships. Hell, they don’t even have to be talented or charismatic when they can get jobs through nepotism! 😀
EDIT: Also this is popular opinion.
Upvoted for being thought provoking even if I am not sure I agree 100 percent.
I think you got your cause and effect all backwards. The bullies and gatekeepers are what drove the increase in anti-sociability. And it’s the Internet being de-democratized that has lead to all the brain rot. It’s no longer a function of what is massively liked that breaks through. Now there is so much control and emphasis on what our eyeballs are even able to see. The wild west Internet days were the best it ever was and it’s just been slowly increasingly restrained since the turn of the century. The intentional capture of our attention for revenue is what has dumbed us down, the algorithms aren’t democratically supporting the free exchange of ideas, they’re promoting the ideas that get you to watch ads ad nauseum.
The worst thing that ever happened was giving people like me a platform.
“The great thing about the internet is that everyone can share their thoughts to anyone.
The bad thing is, that everyone does it.”
Yeah, we are super boned.
Gate keeping and bullying need a come back for real, it’s so annoying when a corporation removes loads of stuff from their website/app/games to accommodate the wider public, even tho the wider public either doesn’t give a crap or just uses the product ones and discards it, instead of being a repeat customer, one of the reasons why TES and Fallout franchises are steadily falling off, same with AC , R6S and so much more, even COD lmao.
“It was once claimed that a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters would eventually duplicate the works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know that this is not true.”
Lol no. Rap music needs record labels and p-diddy about as much as society needs billionaires.
Gatekeepers and bullies are what keep hateful politics alive.
It’s been horrible. Fat people are praised. Skinny people are ridiculed. Murderers are praised, good samaritans and police are chastised. These god damn buzz words are so annoying ‘that’s so based’ ‘that’s hard coping’
I hate the internet.
wrong. the internet was too large and too diverse to weed out various kinds of anti social or wrong opinions and behaviors. they found eachother and formed entire communities where those norms are, well, normal.