this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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I had no idea we were already at that point.
always wanted to visit the US. I guess that won't happen then.
I refuse to participate in this dystopia. But I'm a little worried this will make me a recluse
Trust me you're already a recluse relative to most by being on here. If you observe what passes for a "normal" "person" these days, they will endlessly scroll algorithmic ai-generated incomprehensible horrors on Tiktok, then purchase something through an ad from temu, they do not think. They are gone.
But once you stop worrying that you may be saying no to experiences too much purely on principle, then you're free to go even further and eradicate surveillance capitalism influence from your life altogether. One day you can ascend to even go smartphone-free.
How is that much different from scrolling Lemmy? They are both social media
Because Lemmy is Free, as in Libre and as in free beer, it is open source, and on top of all that, it's not run for-profit by a single large corporate entity, it's decentralised structure precludes that by design.
There is nothing actually wrong with websites or forums like this or "social media", not anymore than there is anything wrong with atoms even if humans found a way to make a weapon of it.
In this case technology is weaponized by capitalism, and they'll do anything to make you think it's anything but the corporations who are to blame, misinformation on top of misinformation.
The "mental health effects" of social media or smartphones are all just corporate distractions from the fact all those are really effects of capitalism. Even cryptocurrency isn't actually bad inherently, I use monero all the time, it's a great idea actually, especially where power consumption is addressed, but capitalism made it a speculative assets and state backed players wrestle for control. AI too. Open source LLMs benefit everyone, but the lack of tech literacy turned progressives against it and the played right into OpenAI and the rest of those scumbags' hands.
The fact that those who aren't immersed in tech don't know this is why all is lost. For the common man - they won, and it's all black box products made to exploit people to the last drop.
That's like saying a Subaru and a submarine are both modes of travel.