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diff --git a/content/entry/manufacturing-agreement.md b/content/entry/manufacturing-agreement.md index 30bbc58..f7ec502 100644 --- a/content/entry/manufacturing-agreement.md +++ b/content/entry/manufacturing-agreement.md @@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ I don't know of another example that is as extreme as China's WeShat. It's defin I was unable to complete my education out of refusal to agree to big tech's ToS and PPs. The sad truth of the matter is, in much of the world, it's totally impractical to get a job and go to school without signing your soul away to big tech. But avoiding the ToS and PPs won't only leave you economically disadvantaged, it'll leave you socially isolated too. ### Social Activities -It's a basic human need to socialize with others. We are social animals. None of us is an island. But the most popular social media apps require you to agree to let them harvest your data. It's not so much that you can't avoid any particular app's ToS and PP. It's that all the apps that anyone actually uses have a ToS and PP requiring you to give up your data. The dreaded [network effect](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect) works for big tech and against everybody else. +It's a basic human need to socialize with others. We are social animals. None of us is an island. But the most popular social media apps require you to agree to let them harvest your data. It's not so much that you can't avoid any particular app's ToS and PP. It's that all the apps that anyone actually uses have a ToS and PP requiring you to give up your data. The dreaded [network effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect) works for big tech and against everybody else. Tech CEOs smugly respond "You don't have to agree to the ToS and PP. Just don't use our app.", but throwing the ToS and PP in user's faces is disingenuous. Maybe you don't have to agree to their social network's ToS and PP, but you practically have to agree to some social networking app's ToS and PP. Saying no to all big social networks, for some people, is just social suicide. Yet all the biggest social medias track users and do other nasty things that nobody should have to agree to. @@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ First, agreement to the ToS and PP of the social media services is manufactured. Next, the services are created to be maximally addictive. Social media companies even hire psychologists to help make their platforms as addictive as possible, worse even than tobacco. So once you're on them, they're hijacking your brain to stay. You're hooked. Now the brainwashing can commence. ### Step 3 -Apply Chomsky's idea that the information you see is filtered by what the stakeholders want you to see. But with social media, it's even worse. When Chomsky first published his book Manufacturing Consent in 1988, it wasn't possible for the media to manipulate people in an individually targeted way. Today, all you have to do is throw some money at Cambridge Analytica and they'll manipulate an entire election for you through Facecrook by using algorithms to [individually target users](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal#Donald_Trump_campaign). +Apply Chomsky's idea that the information you see is filtered by what the stakeholders want you to see. But with social media, it's even worse. When Chomsky first published his book Manufacturing Consent in 1988, it wasn't possible for the media to manipulate people in an individually targeted way. Today, all you have to do is throw some money at Cambridge Analytica and they'll manipulate an entire election for you through Facecrook by using algorithms to [individually target users](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal#Donald_Trump_campaign). Now consider that [half of Americans get their news from social media at least sometimes](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/01/12/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-in-2020/), according to Pew research. At this point, it's beginning to sound very dark. So the big question is "What can we as mere consumers do about it?". I have a few pieces of advice to finish off this post. |