Inexplicably, otherwise rational people seem surprised social media is not on their side. I don’t get it. It’s a willful inability to learn even the simplest of lesson. Here’s a Curmudgeonly Gem of Insight:
No matter who owns the vice, don’t put your nuts in it!
Got it? It’s not rocket science: Corporations are not your friends. Don’t act like they care. How many shots across the bow do you need?
I was reminded of this by Z-Man’s (as usual) well written examination of the topic (titled: Feudalism.Net).
“… something to keep in mind as we see technology evolve into a feudal system, where a small elite controls the resources and grants permission to users. The software oligopolies are now shifting all of their licencing to a subscription model. It’s not just the mobile platforms. Developers of enterprise software for business are adopting the same model. The users have no ownership rights. Instead they are renters, subject to terms and conditions imposed by the developer or platform holder. The users is literally a tenant.”
Yep.
“Take a look at the situation Stefan Molyneux faces. A band of religious fanatics has declared him a heretic and wants him burned. The Great Church of Technology is now in the process of having him expelled from the internet. As he wrote in a post, he invests 12 years building his business on-line, only to find out he owns none of it. He was always just a tenant farmer, who foolishly invested millions in YouTube. Like a peasant, he is now about to be evicted.”
I don’t know anything about Stefan Molyneux. I don’t read his stuff. I don’t have a dog in his fight. He’s probably a great guy who does thoughtful stuff and maybe has a melodious voice and a well trained dog. I wouldn’t know. But if he spent 12 years building a business entirely based on YouTube, that’s bad planning.
I’m shocked, shocked to discover that owners of media platforms act like asshats.
There’s just no excuse for that kind of unawareness.
YouTube doesn’t love you. Twitter isn’t looking out for your best interests. Google failed to “not be evil”. Facebook is a snitch factory. This is not new information. It’s not untested. It’s not unproven. It’s not a surprise.
So how am I to feel empathy for someone who sat in the rain whining he’s wet? Sure it’s not fair. So what? Life isn’t fair. Put on your big boy pants and act accordingly. Mirror on a different platform. Choose a different business model. Fucking diversify! Or at the very least, have a mental parachute ready for the day you’ve got to pull the rip cord. There was ample warning.
Say it once more with feeling. Don’t put your nuts in someone else’s vice!
It’s an easy deduction. I’m not a particularly “connected” guy. My phone is not overly smart, I won’t “like” you on F***book, and I’ve never sent a Tweet. If I can grok the social media trend, a professional in the field should know it twice as well. I got the hint. Why didn’t he?
Two years ago I did the requisite hassles to move from a platform I didn’t control to one I did. Planning months and months ahead, I migrated with no hurry and no fuss. Here’s my explanation (Upcoming Blog Hosting Switcheroo) from two years ago:
“My blog is hosted by wordpress.com. It’s a vice with a firm steely grip on my balls. Bad image in your head and bad practice for me.
Let me start out by saying WordPress has treated me well. I’ve never heard a peep out of ‘em. For all I know it’s all running on a 486DX in a closet in New Jersey and they’ll never mess with me. I write verbiage and they paste ads near my crap and we don’t piss each other off. I have no ill will toward wordpress.
It’s just that I am dependent on them and dependency is Latin for “eventually dumb blogger will get deleted”. WordPress can randomly decide talking to trees is a hate crime, owning a chainsaw is punishable by banishment, or crackpot theories about Abba are threats to civilization.
If they decide to “off” my blog I can’t do Jack shit to stop them. What kind of idiot would entertain such dependency after the lessons of 2016? Could any larger hint be possible?”
Well? Why did Mr. Molyneux not have a plan? I may be an idiot but I recognized my “free” blog on WordPress was vulnerable to being a not-blog. I took simple and reasonable precautions. It’s not rocket science.
What’s wrong with people that “trust” media platforms? Life isn’t fair. So what?
A.C.