[l33tbro]

Interesting how prescient the final comment would come to be some 20 years later. A pretty decent summation of the modern critique of social media's 'like' mechanics and their lack of ability to create change:

"The Net as ideal treadmill for self-styled identities will create no revolutionary situations, nor bring the world to an end. Cybernetic emptiness need not be filled, nor will it ever be full (of desire, abhorrence or unrest). Until telematic energy finally disappears into the flatland of silence in the face of blinking commands."

[CptFribble]

Until/Unless digital opinion mechanics (likes, etc) are given the weight of real world consequences, they will continue to be empty gestures. The only way to move past this era of "like this post to help stop a dictator" is to implement Internet voting or something similar.

I'm not necessarily advocating for internet voting, just saying until some legitimate public outcome is driven by internet-enabled decision-making, all current social media/internet group-decisions will be empty of meaning.