@r_alb

The ability to learn about something objectively without a search engine/agent/application deciding what you want based on your prior searching habits...or worse, the interests of completely different people who happen to share a few common elements of an artificial profile.

This is related to the importance of preserving a degree of serendipity in finding new information.

@glent

Facebook is the greatest geopolitical weapon ever invented.

@cstross

@dagb

Thanks, I knew other platforms worked in pretty much the same way, but I wasn't aware the TT had that as a primary design feature.

@Durrell

@dagb

Why is it any different to Xitter, Insta, Faecebook, ....?

@Durrell

@Ilka4You @randahl

Permanent and irreplaceable dependency is a rentseeker's wet dream.

@sidereal @randahl

For context, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have already been accused of micro-targeting UK Facebook users ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum, and more recently Xitter has been accused of amplifying far-right posts in Europe.

Little Tommeh fascist-Christian is just one of the far-right figures who are getting very agitated about the possibility of a crackdown on US social media.

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/pinch-point/2025/12/17/aje-onl-pp-the-great-replacement-v2-161225

@sidereal @randahl

The ban on TikTok is still ongoing and due to be completed by Jan 23rd 2026.

TikTok is still operational in the United States because it is due to be divested from ByteDance into U.S. control under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (2024).

Since all US social media companies are tools for foreign influence and propaganda, the exact same security concerns apply in Europe.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/application-of-protecting-americans-from-foreign-adversary-controlled-applications-act-to-tiktok/

@randahl

Europe should look to our niece (the USA) for the solution and treat American digital services in the same way that America treated TikTok.

@bsdphk

I've yet to see a time that wasn't!

@randahl

@hamishb

Yes, many (not all) were certainly happy to kick the ladders away in the 80s, and that generation's luck has continued with triple-locked, final salary pensions.

I read something recently about European counties where Boomers had higher incomes in retirement than the average salary of working people, but this seems to be changing for more recent retirees thanks to retirement age increases and taxes.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis

@hosford42

Yes, I experienced similar. A massive reversal that's left the majority much worse off than they were.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis

@ShadSterling

Could be. Gen X were mostly too young to vote against the new wave of neoliberalism in the 80s, but still hung onto some of the benefits before they were completely stripped away for the Millennials.

Gen X is also much smaller than both the Boomer and Millennial generations so that might be a factor.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis

@Fasgadh

Suspect that much of the interest comes from the Strauss Howe generation theory, which claims to explain historical periods from a generational perspective.

It kinda works (if you squint a bit).

@thordis

@nartagnan

It was Gen Y afaik, followed by Gen Z(oomer).

Not sure why it changed, maybe a millennium thing?

@thordis

@hajni

Ha! Fair point, I was just thinking of leaders of global blocs. Antonio Costa is also a boomer.

@thordis

@contrasocial

I believe the Boomer generation is also referred to as the 'Me' generation, and in the West it was certainly a good time to be born.

Full employment, good pensions, health and social care, affordable housing, free education, historically low levels of wealth inequality and historically high levels of social mobility were common before the eighties.

@hajni @thordis

@phils

They were mostly brought up by boomers.....

@thordis

@hajni

GenX is largely ignored, quite possibly because it's much smaller than both the Boomer and Millennial generations to either side, but it's interesting that so many of the world's leaders are still Boomers (Xi, Trump, Putin, Von Der Leyen, ...), even as they slip into senility.

@thordis

@BestCryptoTwits @Daojoan

Most of the old internet is still there, it's just been buried by the corporate web and largely ignored by smartfones.

What we need is a way to convince our friends and family to ditch their corporate theft-and-nudge-ware and pick up the old open protocols.