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Comment by crtified | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting as a lifetime low socioeconomic person, for whom (almost) the entire modern paradigm of social media and major web corporations are, and always have been, both socially and financially unaffordable.

I watch on from the outside, researching, reading and watching as I please (and yes, that means I am some kind of perma-pirate, I guess*), and all this kind of crap - waves hand in general direction of FAANG and co, and all the shit they've evolved society into, over the past 20 years - is Someone Else's Problem.

That Someone, being mainstream society, apparently. Well, some people say "vote with your wallet" - I say, vote with your lifestyle.

* don't get me wrong - I am happy to ethically self-justify, in terms of my lifetime holistic net inputs and outputs. And how many of us enjoy, for example, a video game emulation romset? - if so, then you're no different.

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Having been more or less "over it" from very early on, I can definitely see that tempest-in-a-teacup factor, not to mention feel the hollowness of all the articles about how "we" live "our whole lives" online and that's why this or that is sooo important. Close the laptop and it all goes away, in some respect. Though there are cracks in it... for example it becomes a real problem when it's harder to get your local government's attention by engaging their own communication protocols than it is hail them or shame them on Twitter... which requires entering into relationships with at least 2 maybe 3 private companies that maybe I don't want relationships with, or have the money to do so. And of course there's the general and widespread degradation of decorum and social cohesion, though this too is mostly confined to online. It's when people start to have the nerve to act like that in public, in person, that it, again, becomes a real problem.

Already nobody was in charge, but now there's really nobody in charge.

Smug dropout is smug.

I was aiming, albeit rather belatedly, for kinship, rather than smugness.

But being socially ineffective = sometimes missing the mark, when it comes to conveying feelings, despite best efforts or intentions.

I'll take your read under advisement. :)

I got your meaning from first reading. There's no smugness because your position isn't self-righteously or even voluntarily chosen. You've been thrust into a position on the side of the river where the flow is slower and therefore less shit drifts in, purely by good/bad luck.

I like my IT shit, but my major life joys come from my kids and sports and writing / thinking. If FAANG went poof tomorrow (and maybe be if I was a praying person, I'd pray for this daily) my life joys would be almost entirely unaffected.

It's a good perspective.

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