I dunno. It's not like brillant work isn't done now, but it really feels like the "average person's" attention is totally consumed by the hype of social media and influencers, at least from my perspective in the United States. And now that includes high profile politicans and institutional leaders heavily influenced by their feeds.

This is a great microcosm: https://lemmy.world/post/28290391

Look at all that engagement, for what are basically instagram influencers taking a high altitude selfie ride! It utterly dwarfs any kind of "real" space missions now, much less women that have gone up before. That couldn't have happened in the 70s; the information environment simply wasn't condusive to it.

And that has very real ramifications for scientists that need public funding.

[–] Valar_Morghulis@jlai.lu 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I feel you man (or moose). It’s terrifying but I want to see it at two sides of the same coin: internet, fast communication spreads misinformation and lies but also truth and knowledge. Social networks are those idiots but also you and me having a nice chat! We ought to bring more people to our side of the coin. To get back to the subject. Be it 70’s or 2025, if we find extraterrestrial life : military will try to neutralise, kill or control it, billionaires will try to own it, politicians to use it for their agenda and corporates to sell it.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Social media isn’t a network, it’s a set of siloed attention farms.

That’s a very important distinction to make IMO. We’ve treated Big Tech like they’re the stewards of the internet for way too long. Facebook, Twitter, Discord, TikTok… those are the villains eating everyone’s attention.

Lemmy isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely more in the bucket of the “old internet” and more network like. I love it! And I love were chatting. But a tiny fraction of the population is engaging like that these days.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Lemmy is social media. It all depends on the algorithms

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Posts/comments aren’t sorted and hidden by a ML model optimizing for engagement though.

That’s the key. That’s what makes the environments so toxic and addictive.

Maybe sorting by upvotes isn’t perfect, but it’s still leagues away.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Agreed. You know a social media site is crap if you can't sort chronologically

That means they intentionally stripped away that basic function because they want to control what content you see