[baldanders]

I believe that we are going to start seeing the rise of purposely stripped-down software, ie text-only social media platforms or social media platforms with hard-caps on the number of connections you can add per account. Information technology will begin to be viewed through a more biological lens. The best analogy I can think of is our current relationship with food. We acknowledge that our biological reward systems can be hijacked via junk food and we have erected massive systems to curtail these destructive impulses. Despite this, there are still those who gorge themselves on unhealthy food due to their lack of education and/or an inability to afford healthier food. As soon as the negative effects of social media begin to manifest themselves in the upper classes (students failing classes en masse, severe incompetence in the job market, increased generation of brain-dead media) new platforms will be created to allow people to take advantage of technology without being caught up in the biological loopholes that modern social media create. The majority of the lower classes will continue to use exploitative platforms, which will probably become much worse as it is made more explicit that their user-base is made up of a cattle-caste. Much like food, I predict that the health-conscious platforms will erect paywalls and other barriers to entry that will further cement the class divide. It would take me hours to really flesh out what I'm trying to say here but I think that I was able to squeeze some of it out.

[grumblenum]

Gopher and Gemini are attempts at this. There are a few comfortable online communities out there when you get away from the big web properties. Unless you’re into gamification of showing how orthodox and au currant you are. Then there’s Reddit.