[prodigycorp]

Perhaps there is reason to be optimistic. If we believe nothing online, then digital inauthenticity may cause us to yearn more for authentic, in-person interactions.

The modern web has not been without its warts. It's led society to some very unhealthy behaviors. It's telling that a lot of people think the internet is society, rather than a slice of it. Perhaps its decline is the correction society needed.

It's easy to feel like a doomer if you're thinking "it's sad that the web is being torn apart" and your framing of the web is "the magical place of promise it used to be 25 years ago."

[nunodonato]

Funny, I've been thinking in the same lines as of lately. The speed-up of the lost of trust (and interest) in everything online will make us care more for the real world around us. Perhaps we will see a big shift in values.

But then again, perhaps we won't and things will just get worse.

[latexr]

A major problem with a culture of distrust is that bad actors doing bad things get impunity by telling everyone that what they did was fake.

It’s already been tried, when deepfakes weren’t even that good.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/27/elon-musk...

[CalRobert]

Certainly. Funny that we start getting photos from the Epstein files as soon as it's easy to make fakes.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Your comment sounds like you're suggesting that those Epstein files photos are fake. I don't know why you'd want to suggest that unless you're trying to make excuses for paedophile rapists and traffickers and discredit the various people whose lives have been ruined by Epstein and his pals.

[latexr]

In the context of the comment they’re replying to, I think they’re saying the opposite: That the photos were released when they could plausibly imply they were fake, thus complying with the mandate while also giving their base the ammunition to discrediting them despite them being factual.

[noufalibrahim]

I think there are generational aspects to this.

The older generation (gen-x) and before has been trained to believe traditional media (and by extension, anything that is published on a "website" and/or forwarded on Whatsapp). Images, pictures etc. add to the authenticity. Of course, it's easier to forward than to investigate and refute.

The younger generation is less influenced by this but also care less about generating and forwarding these. Most of these things are "just a joke". In a weird way, pushing out non-consensual nude of someone is the same as editing someone's face in a group photo with dog ears and sending it to a circle of friends.

I don't know what the solution is but this kind of thing erodes trust. Photographs used to be evidence that can be used to establish trust and we've been culturally conditioned to accept them that way. This takes a sledgehammer to that and it's not easy to untrain a whole society away from a deeply conditioned feeling so easily.

[ChoGGi]

> I don't know what the solution is but this kind of thing erodes trust. Photographs used to be evidence that can be used to establish trust and we've been culturally conditioned to accept them that way

I'm just waiting (with some dread) for the day that you can sync up multiple cameras with AI to fake from different angles.

[CalRobert]

Suddenly a polaroid feels better than any digital photo.

[nunodonato]

I've been leaning to more analog (and "old") stuff these days. Not sure if it's because I'm tired of all the crap online, or its a coincidence of getting older and missing the old times. Maybe a bit of both. But I really enjoy sitting in my living room and do nothing except listen to my record and cd player.

[CalRobert]

I feel a little like a rebel every time I pay with cash.

Funny that cd's are comparatively analog. (I get your meaning though).

[nunodonato]

Yeah, that's true, they are digital, but still feel "old". I was quite amazed while playing a vinyl record, accidentally lowered the volume down to 0, and could still literally hear a bit of sound coming out, not from the speakers, from the needle touching the record. Then I remembered that it's the actual sound waves that are engraved in the record. Amazing stuff

[CalRobert]

I was blown away when I made a crystal radio and could hear (barely) the station with no power source but the radio signal itself! Digital broadcast makes this impossible, alas.

[noufalibrahim]

It's nice to have analog/real world hobbies to reset. My kids and I have picked up whittling. A few blocks of wood, a sharp knife, some sheets of sandpaper and time just slows down. Many others too. It's nice to be completely offline for an extended period of time.

[cronin101]

Except you can actually “scan” a digital photo with a Polaroid quite effectively and it will look pretty much identical to a real Polaroid, so even that is security theatre.

[CalRobert]

true! I'm talking about watching someone click the shutter and hand me the actual photo. Though who knows what could happen with in-camera processing or a cloud-connected camera.