My original post in this thread seems to have struck a chord.
However, the one above that I am replying to has not.
Imo, they are not unrelated.
We haven’t got to current global circumstances in linear time ... change is accelerating imo.
Over just the past 50 years we have moved:
from hard won gains and emerging justifiable optimism for improved global circumstances and well being
to tightening living conditions, increasing uncertainty and pessimism for the future.
That time period began with the rise of computers, then easy to use mass produced windows based computers, quickly switching to to the rise of software, enabling the rise of mobile communications and the net, the rise of social media and software as a service and now the internet of everything.
Imo, there is sleight of hand at play here.
We have seen the rise of about 6 tech megacorps during the rise of social media. Each with sufficient clout to act as corporatocracies challenging each other and most nations and collectively what was thought to be the inexorable rise of China as the US slips into a dystopian future.
Social media could be viewed as 21st century opium for the masses.“Empowered” people chatter vacuously and some rail against perceived injustices and invasion on personal rights.
However aren’t we shackled, rather than empowered?
Views and data harvested by megacorps are used to herd for increased exploitation.
Wilst things are different, and apparently more immediate, we are not clearly better off for the rise of social media imo.
