SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS DON’T DESERVE US

Yonder Surf Zine sums it up pretty well (get a copy here):

“For years now, we’ve been giving our words, thoughts and images to a $100 Billion tech company. It feels like we’ve lost control of our cultural narrative to a social media algorithm.

We’ve handed the very essence of our culture to the Silicon Valley tech bros and we’re losing our own minds in the process. We do it to justify our existence as surfers or creatives; in an eternal battle for online attention. It’s not good for us; it’s not good for surf culture and it’s not good for future generations.”

Why don’t people visit websites anymore? Because we put all our best work on someone else’s website, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, YouTubeetc.

If we put all our best work on these various platforms that we don’t control, what incentive is there to visit our websites?

And remember – these platforms monetize our work. We are the product, the never ending feed of text and images and videos and hot takes. These companies cram all this “content” into a feed, throw in advertisements, and make money.

Guitarist Steve Vai knew this years ago, saying (as the artist) “I get paid the most.”

(Yonder link via Looking Sideways)