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The internet is worse than it used to be. How did we get here, and can we go back?
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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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We would be better than ever, if not for the normification.
what exactly does that mean?
It's what happened to the internet. Devices were dumbed down to make the internet accessible for everyone. Now the "normies" are also on the internet, whereas in the past they'd belittle you for spending time on the computer.
In time, the Fediverse will also be easily accessible. And where there are normies, you'll find corporate enshittification.
Edit: thanks for the downvotes because I explained the word "normification". You're overthinking this. It's a term that has been around since before Reddit became popular. It's a term that stems from 4chan. I don't like the term, I just explained it. And yes, the corpos are to blame but they couldn't do the things they do without a certain user base. And that's not your typical tech savvy user base. How is that so difficult to understand?
I'm not sure that categorizing people as "normies" is a great idea. nor is it a way to entice new people and voices to join and learn how to use the fediverse so that it can become a more reliable place.
i think blaming enshittification on "normies" is a lot easier than holding greedy corporations accountable for directly making everything worse. it's surely easier, but the real issue remains unchecked.
if anything, it's a good thing that more people are learning how much better the fediverse is. it helps the fediverse get stronger, not weaker.
"us" vs "them" is not a mindset that will produce anything except cesspools of toxicity. at least imho.
What's really annoying is it's straight out of the corpo playbook.
"We're not responsible for ______, you are because you didn't do enough ________".
The most blatant is "global warming" and "ate too much meat/didn't recycle enough/made poor choices with your car" and so on.
It'd be nice if people would stop trying to blame the worst offenses being perpetuated on people by billionaires and their pet corporations on personal choices, because it's hot liquid bullshit.
I didn't coin the term and I too believe it's a huge generalization. However, "simpler" people are more susceptible to ads. The "normies" in question are the ones that don't use adblockers, they believe ads are normal and they believe ads don't affect them. Corporations capitalize on that. Better tech education would definitely help take some power away from corporations.
Edit: even now you'll find people that use Lemmy apps that have ads. The bigger the user base, the more greedy companies will find ways of exploiting the Fediverse.
If you truly believe that, then vilifying more "simple" and less tech-savvy individuals is not the way to do it. Don't be angry that they click on ads. Be angry that they've been poisoned to think that behavior is normal on the internet.
Education is absolutely possible for those new to things like the fediverse. But education doesn't work when you use those labels for people. It widens the gap, it doesn't close it.
I was a normie once. I too fell for misinformation in the past. If it wasn't for the freely available information on the internet, I wouldn't be here today.
You went ahead and actually gathered the correct information. This is not what the "normies" in question do. Look, I didn't coin the term nor do I approve of the use of this term. I just wanted to explain what the other person meant with "normification".
Fair enough. What we desperately need is proper social media / modern internet education right from middle school level. Identifying dark patterns, echo chambers, bot/human impersonators, fake news. I feel like this awareness is missing in both youngsters and boomers.
Absolutely! I fear it's too late for many boomers but the younger generations are in desperate need of this. In Germany a lot of younger people are voting for Nazis because they have the cooler TikTok content. It's a total shitshow. Our schools are garbage regarding this. I know this because my wife is a teacher and she's the only one taking this seriously in her school. All of her colleagues don't see the need. It's really bad unfortunately.
Tbf, democracies kinda always suffered from this problem.
The italian long-term prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was a comedian before going into politics. And so was english prime minister Boris Johnsson. In other words, they were used to catering to audiences, instead of having technical training. (IIRC)
I disagree. Such a thing is not feasible. In 1500, when the printing press was developed, Martin Luther tried to raise all people in the entire population to be priests, because "now that they have books, they can educate themselves". Obviously, it didn't work. I think most people just aren't made for higher knowledge, and we should accept that fact rather than push people through a high-pressure high-stress levels school system.