Krissa Lox
Active Member
Not meant to trivialize some of the serious issues and potential consequences of some bad things happening in these areas, but I thought it would be good to vocalize a reminder that:
Free and de-centralized communication infrastructures outside of the commercial internet, like UseNet, ListServ, BBS's, still exist and remain in active usage, even if not as widely advertised and popular as commercial options.
Cheap but effective non-profit Linux-based computing is available from places like Raspberry Pi, with dedicated support communities to help people learn, customize, and innovate with it.
A lot of good software alternatives can be found at places like Free Software Foundation and SourceForge, also with dedicated support communities to help people out.
"Big Tech" does not now, never has, and never will own the internet as a whole, but it's older and more dominating brother in commerce "Big Advertising" has a lot of means and incentive to try to create that illusion, because it likes to exploit Big Tech's userbase for its own gain, regardless of the consequences to others.
Maybe one day Big Tech will grow up enough to stand on its own and push away from its older brother's manipulations, but that day is probably not today.
However, Big Tech is not really as big and powerful as it thinks it is, and society isn't going to collapse if advertising-dependent media services suffer a reduction in commercial viability. Society may even end up being improved by such an event, though there would likely be some chaos and pain to endure in the process.
Free and de-centralized communication infrastructures outside of the commercial internet, like UseNet, ListServ, BBS's, still exist and remain in active usage, even if not as widely advertised and popular as commercial options.
Cheap but effective non-profit Linux-based computing is available from places like Raspberry Pi, with dedicated support communities to help people learn, customize, and innovate with it.
A lot of good software alternatives can be found at places like Free Software Foundation and SourceForge, also with dedicated support communities to help people out.
"Big Tech" does not now, never has, and never will own the internet as a whole, but it's older and more dominating brother in commerce "Big Advertising" has a lot of means and incentive to try to create that illusion, because it likes to exploit Big Tech's userbase for its own gain, regardless of the consequences to others.
Maybe one day Big Tech will grow up enough to stand on its own and push away from its older brother's manipulations, but that day is probably not today.
However, Big Tech is not really as big and powerful as it thinks it is, and society isn't going to collapse if advertising-dependent media services suffer a reduction in commercial viability. Society may even end up being improved by such an event, though there would likely be some chaos and pain to endure in the process.