Thoughts and takeaways, plus 3 viable solutions:

Thoughts

1️⃣ I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Enshittification might be a good thing. Here’s why

I don’t “like” that things have gotten this bad, but I do like that the worse things get, the more we can collectively organize and pressure reform to fix these things.

2️⃣ These tests are usually run on relatively small subsets of the user base. Remember when they rolled out hiding likes? That was rolled out periodically as well.

They typically also run different types of user bases. They already know the hardcore “influencers” and people who have built a public following will never leave the platform, since they’re too invested already, and are the people/publications that contribute the most to network effects. I.e., you’re on there because they’re on there.

3️⃣ Remember when Tim Kendall (former executive at Facebook) says that they talked about Zuckerberg having ultimate control over these 3 distinct goals?

1. Engagement: Drive up your usage. Keep you scrolling, liking, commenting, and remaining active on the platform.
2. Growth: Encouraging you to keep coming back and inviting your friends, and getting them to invite their friends, and so on.
3. Advertising: Make sure that as growth and engagement are happening, advertising revenue is maximized.

That’s what’s happening here—this is dial #3 being turned up.

Solutions

1. The most obvious: Delete your account

I know, I know—network effects are tough to break.

Tell your friends and family to delete theirs. Make yourself unreachable on Facebook-owned platforms.

Most people are posting less as traditional posts, and more as stories. If stories is your thing, Signal has stories. This is a really secure, private, and still convenient way to share whatever you want throughout the day.

If your favorite restaurant changes your dish’s recipe, you’d prolly stop going, right? Well, that recipe’s been changing, and we continue to put up with it despite an increasingly worse product.

2. For those looking for an alternative: Use Pixelfed

It doesn’t have nearly the same type of content or user base size that Instagram does. But the same way that we built Facebook little by little, the same can be done for healthier alternative platforms.

This might also help your reduction in using social media, if you’re looking for that.

3. For those who can’t/will never leave Instagram: Use an open source native mobile app (Android-specific)

If you have an Android-based mobile operating system, there are apps like MyInsta and Instander that give you a native Instagram experience while blocking all of the ads.

They also have app-specific settings that allow you to customize your Instagram experience even further, such as (but limited to):

• Downloading photos/reels/entire carousels
• Reduces data sent to Instagram (analytics, ads, and other requests)
• Ghost mode
• Block reels, posts, stories, explore, comments, or whatever else
• Tons more

I run a basketball media outlet (InThePaintCrew) and a lifestyle/photography page (LifeViaChicago), and being able to modify the experience to remove the noise/clutter when a native Instagram app is needed is helpful.

Lol it was the other way around… I actually added a word instead. Fixed

now.

Fixed it, thanks for flagging

Nice, thanks. Your site is really clean. Dig it.

Glad you like it.

And yeah, it’s foundational. We tolerate things digitally that we’d never tolerate in person.

Once I start connecting and analogizing digital to physical concepts in a conversation, it appears to “click” in their heads and they end up saying something along the lines of, “You’re right. It makes sense.”

Hence this project. I hope people can use this website and link it to people who need it to understand how this affects us all—now, not in the future.

Not the first time facial recognition tech has been misused, and certainly won’t be the last. The UK in particular has caught a lotta flak around this.

We seem to have a hard time connecting the digital world to the physical world and realizing just how interwoven they are at this point.

Therefore, I made an open source website called idcaboutprivacy to demonstrate the importance—and dangers—of tech like this.

It’s a list of news articles that demonstrate real-life situations where people are impacted.

If you wanna contribute to the project, please do. I made it simple enough to where you don’t need to know Git or anything advanced to contribute to it. (I don’t even really know Git.)

We gonna see a GoldeneOS?

Nonprofit news organizations. The Markup has a very public-interest technology approach, and is most well-known for it’s Blacklight tool.

At least you can say the experience was lit

“Being simple’s a yes, being skilled is a not/ Having substance is lame, using substance is hot”

“Been public enemy since you thought ‘PE’ was gym, biiiitch!”

Our cognitive biases are fascinating, aren’t they

Revenge bedtime syndrome. It’s legit.

Source: it’s 4 am right now

I wanna preface this by saying that I run GrapheneOS (GOS), so idk if that has anything to do with the fact that nothing has flagged my version of KDE Connect. If it’s a Google Play Services (GPS) thing, then:

1. I guess it depends on whether you run GPS on your GOS phone, or
2. Maybe it doesn’t even depend on #1, since GPS runs as unprivileged. I put KDE it on my GPS profile, and didn’t get any notification about this.

Guessing this is just a Play Protect thing.

Nevertheless, if you’re installing FOSS apps, try installing them via Obtanium instead of the Google Play Store.

You can simply copy and paste the source code URL into Obtanium, and it’ll grab the APK, as well as notify you when there’s updates.

It supports F-Droid, GitHub, GitLab, and other sources.

I would stop using the internet

You should vocalize it to the owner (or at least management) if you can. You’d be surprised what comes of it.

I did this once with a restaurant/bar owner, and she was very understanding. Once I took the time to explain how I didn’t wanna be subjected to everything that a setup like that brings, she empathized and actually got a standalone website.

Many people aren’t aware until you make em aware. And whether they feel the same or not from a consumer standpoint, at least they’ll know that there’s people out there who do care, and it affects business. And usually, if it affects business, it doesn’t matter what their personal feelings towards it are. A good business owner will be sure to adjust because they learned something new about the market.

Sounds like an efficient way for that person to self-filter outta your life.

Creating revenue streams is far more valuable than cutting costs.

Apple does a phenomenal job in providing solutions to problems they created in the first place.

• Get rid of ports on the computer ➡️ Buy adapters
• Get rid of the headphone jack ➡️ Buy AirPods
• Proprietary lightning port ➡️ Buy more unstandardized cables/adapters
• No expandable memory ➡️ Buy an iCloud subscription
• No spare/replaceable battery ➡️ Buy a battery replacement service
• Little thing breaks ➡️ Shoulda bought AppleCare to make it somewhat less expensive

regardless of the company

This is key.

“Planned obsolescence tends to work best when a producer has at least an oligopoly. Before introducing a planned obsolescence, the producer has to know that the customer is at least somewhat likely to buy a replacement from them in the form of brand loyalty. In these cases of planned obsolescence, there is an information asymmetry between the producer, who knows how long the product was designed to last, and the customer, who does not. When a market becomes more competitive, product lifespans tend to increase.”

Sideloading is supposedly on the way. No ETA though.