In your opinion Is the internet as it stands today a force for collectivization or individualism?
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Replies (35)
Collective individualism
depends on what part. the normie most (most social media) 100% collectivism
Propaganda is too strong. The average person thinks the internet is Twitter/Facebook/Youtube. I’m going with Collectivization for $200 Alex.
Individualism
its a 2 way medium, not a one way broadcast of traditional medium. it connects people in ways that werent possible before, allowing them to express individual thought and questions.
99% collectivism, 2% individualism.
The internet , like life, is what you make of it. Most people will follow the path of least resistance, the safe route (Google Facebook YouTube). The rugged individualist will carve his/her own path regardless of the forces that prevent him/her (Tor, BTC, encrypted messaging).
The internet is the greatest and most disastrous human invention. It preys on peoples fears and deepest desires, which is both a good and horrible thing.
It is up to each individual to understand how they handle this beast.
bimodal
There are more individualists & libertarians today than ever before, & that is almost entirely a result of the internet. Bitcoin is the greatest tool for individual empowerment to ever exist. Nostr & Keet are pretty amazing too despite being far from mature technologies. The most popular podcasts & shows are almost completely at odds with govt propaganda.
Yes, there are centralized platforms that heavily manipulate people. The primary search engines are a serious problem. Ignorance is at an all time high because the compulsory "education" system is horribly corrupt. But the internet is really the primary tool for combatting that.
If we were collectivizing then there would be a lot less disagreement & division. People would just all agree & get along & none of the lies would really be known or discussed.
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Collectivism: Try to find something critical about climate change or covid on google. Most people don't want to see that the big tech tools they are using are biased.
People using freedom tech are the minority.
Neither. It's just a neutral tool that allows you to connect with like-minded individuals.
Individual collectivism
Neither 👀
Depends on how one chooses or defaults to using it.
it's all captured
mmhmmm. yep.
One can use a hammer to build a house but also kill a man
Mostly commie
Seems like a force for Cloudflare.
Both. But the war continues.
"The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them."- Hal Finney
It’s a massive reorg. People associate with more people like themselves. Think Divergent.
Positives and negatives.
Yes
Both
yeah but hammer not trying to trick me at every swing.
I see what you did there...
In my point of view it is a force for individualism but it depends how you are educated about it / how you educated yourself about it and continue to do so in the future.
The number of tools that enable you to live a self souvereign life with the Internet in 2024 is growing steadily and gives you a lot of opportunities. But always depends if you're willing to the work of fighting the collectivism tendencies that are being tried to enhanced on a regular basis.
And i say this as a european citizen where our biggest institution (EU) is trying to force more control by establishing more censorship and control by the day.
But in the end this will just push more people to rise against their efforts and use freedom tech like #Bitcoin and #nostr.
They think that they can stop this but in my humble point of view they can't.
Which corner?
The internet has something for everyone.
I'm with Heisenberg on this one. Neither and both at the same time.
It's a global network, do with it what you want.
If you open your door to others, you welcome more people with bad intentions too....
Still you can use it for your purposes.
Just dyor and stop answering the bad people (imho)
TCP/IP isn't good or bad. It's layer 8 (the human) where things start to get bad and malicious
#Bitcoin is a protocol, not good or bad by design.
A car is a vehicle, not good or bad by design.
A gun is a tool, not good or bad by design.
Today, the internet has become a very efficient way to communicate to the world how much of an individual you are 😂
There are no groups, only individuals who claim they or others belong to a group.
A group comes in handy when the vote of the majority rules, like in a democracy. That's why we end up with dumb individuals in politics to treat every individual as part of a group.
The internet is a means of communication between individuals.
Collectivism (group thinking) is the ideology we should try to avoid.
There is no group
There is no community
"There is no spoon"
The algorithms we experience are tuned for hyper-individualism.
For the sake of the binary choice given: Collectivization.
Before the internet it was extremely hard to have a niche hobby and find kindred spirits who have the same interests.
Instead you would all watched sports ball, which you may have cared about, but not as much as you cared about painting Warhammer figurines.
Now it's easy to find people who are into Warhammer figurines as much as you. Now you don't really need sports ball to find your people.
The collectives are much smaller (we live in the most atomized time, ever, in history). The bonds you have with your collective are also much stronger, because niching down requires a certain amount of fervor to truly enjoy.
Not my idea really, so h/t Michael Malice who posited the foundation of above.
