SoylentBlake, 1 year ago

I keep seeing report after report that Gen Z keeps falling for internet scams at an alarmingly high rate

…which, I mean, idk, maaaybe?

Media literacy and scam discernment, I feel like we as millennials grew up alongside the rise of disinformation and the greater Enshitification of the internet, like this is our wheelhouse.

I remember icq, yahoo chat rooms, Napster and limewire, playing MUDS and ADOM, then digg, myspace. I remember when the Internet was fun, now, it’s just advertisers. I quit Facebook 7 years ago. I quit reddit with the API dick punch. I’ve been advertised to so much in my life that if I see a movie trailer it makes me not want to see it.

The internet can be great. Getting knowledge off it is amazing. I personal feel like the library of Congress should be made available online for free and all this knowledge thats hiding behind pay gates needs to be visited by the freedom fairy. I hope I can help facilitate this in my lifetime.

With media, I can only speak for myself, but I quit watching news in 2008. Ill read my news and not have some talking head attempt to emotionally manipulate me while they leave out key facts that don’t fit their narrative, thanks. Televised news has been more detrimental to us as a whole, imo.

My bullshit meter is simple. If whom or whatever is saying something that makes it an us vs them issue, dividing the people up, then they’re wrong. Almost universally. If your answer is only found down around the fallen, you aren’t bringing an answer, yr bringing an excuse to violence.

Real leadership, real progress, lifts up those it encounters. The rising tide is supposed to lift all ships. Cept in this dystopic reality, motherfuckers chained everyone’s ships to the dock and the rising tide just overcame and sank them. Rich get richer, poor get poorer, until the poor get even.

I’m dismayed we have to keep repeating this pattern. America had the same problems 100 years ago. We’ve had an entire century to do something about it, but fucking NOPE. An entire century wasted in my opinion. Better tech is cool, but if it doesn’t improve the lives of us all, than it fails the reasoning for tools existing in the first place, which is to relieve society if the many necessary hours of labor.