96: Digital Ecological Collapse

We are witnessing the total meltdown of the commercial internet. Enshittification (thanks Cory Doctorow!) of social media and other large Silicon Valley-style products & services, combined with the specter of “AI” (ChatGPT, etc.) infecting every company’s efforts, has led to a rather scary inflection point. It’s getting harder and harder to work with corporations and use internet services without feeling fundamentally ethically compromised.

On the positive side, there’s a real opportunity here to rebuild an internet actually based on the values we care about—values like sustainability over the long term, avoiding the “fast growth” hype cycle mentality at the cost of a healthy ecosystem, and putting people over tech-infused greed. We can vote with our time, money, and energy by rejecting outrageous claims which do damage to the community and by supporting and contributing to projects and protocols which further a humane, creative, and safe digital world.

Links & Show Notes

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
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• Follow Jared on Mastodon
• See the comments on this very episode, and add your own!
• On Mastodon: The block list for Safari has grown. 😎
• On Mastodon: ”It’s his data, you see. His. Not yours.”
  • DUDE: the only reason you have that data set is because we, the humans, gave you all that content for free!!
• Eric Carroll: ”We are the DATA BORG.”
• 9to5Mac: Reddit usage metrics fall thanks to CEO’s plan to boost revenue
• Eight days later: Kbin, Lemmy, the landed gentry, and the rise of the “threadiverse”
• Jared Norman: “The “tech guy thinks tech will solve a problem he doesn’t understand” trope has been taken to its logical conclusion.”
• On Mastodon: “Good grief, now I’m getting chided by a software company for calling out their B.S. marketing on ChatGPT integration”
• The Future is Intuitive
  • Announcing the next several years of my journey publishing educational content for the marvel that is the open web.