When I was a kid, “truth” was easy to find. I taught myself SO MANY different languages even without reading any actual books - the knowledge available on webpages was sufficient (in fairness, those that I learned from real books I have retained much more readily, especially having learned why not simply how things tend to work; also, webpages can provide merely a different form of packaging the identical material).
Even now, material such as the Crash Course or Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell YouTube series are still available, and I hear stories such as people in Africa traveling for hundreds of miles to a spot where often there is not even so much as a tarp providing cover from the blazing sun overhead, just 4 poles sticking up from the ground where one could go if/when it becomes available, and the entire class learns from a laptop or tablet screen (possibly with enlarged TV display). If people wanted knowledge, it is there for the taking, or was in the information age (except… it’s STILL THERE?!).
Now, I am finding it hard to adjust to the disinformation era.
Also, some things don’t seem to need “learning” to already know - it may be more about stripping away the lies, which again speaks to a willingness to engage. So I get it, but I think it’s sad as I watch what will eventually lead to the demise of Lemmy: an unwillingness to grow beyond what is here currently (though projects such as Mbin and PieFed - and perhaps Sublinks? - offer alternative avenues of hope).
Well, I actually somehow encouraged myself by typing this? Truth, even when sad, is soothing in a manner that lies will never be.
I think the problem with Lemmy is that there’s no consequence for being full of shit.
Mastodon goes with your real name, so there’s at least a social consequence. But there’s not ever any kind of a moment, like there would be in sports or engineering or similar, where your grand ideas meet with reality and you realize you were full of shit and need to go back to the drawing board. It’s just based on what everyone feels is a good way to look at things.
Of course, that’s not exclusive to Lemmy. Lots of American society is in a weird reality-free zone right now.
Yeah, and not just in America but the whole world it seems, if to a lesser degree. The Alt-Right on X, the Alt-Left here, and centrists on Reddit in-between the extremes who believe that everything will magically sort itself out, including things like climate change that very well might not. This was very much done to us though, even as we simultaneously did it to ourselves:-(. Just like Brexit, and so many other scenarios like that, e.g. in the global south.
Although years ago when I had a Facebook account - tied to my real name - I acted the same way that I do now (iirc?). I may not be all that representative of the average social media consumer:-P.
I like PieFed’s idea of making a user have a “reputation” score. Depending on how well it is implemented, that could be really helpful.:-) Or abusive if not.:-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6x125_JCvc
When I was a kid, “truth” was easy to find. I taught myself SO MANY different languages even without reading any actual books - the knowledge available on webpages was sufficient (in fairness, those that I learned from real books I have retained much more readily, especially having learned why not simply how things tend to work; also, webpages can provide merely a different form of packaging the identical material).
Even now, material such as the Crash Course or Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell YouTube series are still available, and I hear stories such as people in Africa traveling for hundreds of miles to a spot where often there is not even so much as a tarp providing cover from the blazing sun overhead, just 4 poles sticking up from the ground where one could go if/when it becomes available, and the entire class learns from a laptop or tablet screen (possibly with enlarged TV display). If people wanted knowledge, it is there for the taking, or was in the information age (except… it’s STILL THERE?!).
Now, I am finding it hard to adjust to the disinformation era.
Also, some things don’t seem to need “learning” to already know - it may be more about stripping away the lies, which again speaks to a willingness to engage. So I get it, but I think it’s sad as I watch what will eventually lead to the demise of Lemmy: an unwillingness to grow beyond what is here currently (though projects such as Mbin and PieFed - and perhaps Sublinks? - offer alternative avenues of hope).
Well, I actually somehow encouraged myself by typing this? Truth, even when sad, is soothing in a manner that lies will never be.
I think the problem with Lemmy is that there’s no consequence for being full of shit.
Mastodon goes with your real name, so there’s at least a social consequence. But there’s not ever any kind of a moment, like there would be in sports or engineering or similar, where your grand ideas meet with reality and you realize you were full of shit and need to go back to the drawing board. It’s just based on what everyone feels is a good way to look at things.
Of course, that’s not exclusive to Lemmy. Lots of American society is in a weird reality-free zone right now.
Yeah, and not just in America but the whole world it seems, if to a lesser degree. The Alt-Right on X, the Alt-Left here, and centrists on Reddit in-between the extremes who believe that everything will magically sort itself out, including things like climate change that very well might not. This was very much done to us though, even as we simultaneously did it to ourselves:-(. Just like Brexit, and so many other scenarios like that, e.g. in the global south.
Although years ago when I had a Facebook account - tied to my real name - I acted the same way that I do now (iirc?). I may not be all that representative of the average social media consumer:-P.
I like PieFed’s idea of making a user have a “reputation” score. Depending on how well it is implemented, that could be really helpful.:-) Or abusive if not.:-(
Either way, all we can control is ourselves.