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Comment by recuter | Hacker News Reader

This is a common thought and hardly a new one.

Reminds me of a certain manifesto from the 90s. It starts like this: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."

More happily, it also reminds me of Douglas Adams:

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”

Recently Facebook had a drop in daily users for the first time ever and the stock plummeted. Quaranteenies aren't signing up for it and adults are increasingly walking away from it.

It is absolutely not too late, it is never too late.

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The absolutely terrifying thing about Kaczynski's manifesto is that much of it is a rational, if utterly cynical, reaction to modernity. How a man who could think so clearly about the implications of our societal choices could conclude that the answer is to mail nail bombs to innocent people both bewilders and scares the bejesus out of me.

On balance, Adams definitely had the more relaxed, froody attitude towards it all.

The Hitchhiker's Guide is such a good meditation and exploration on the randomness and ridiculousness of the universe. Personally I would recommend the original radio series rather than the book, I think Adams was a better script writer than author.

The revolution is over and the result isn't good. Sorry, addicting people to their narcissism is not very positive, no matter how it is spinned

Only because even worse alternatives have sprung up.

I'm honestly out of the loop these days, what are the worse alternatives, in the sense of their impact on society?

I feel like Instagram is utterly toxic in the materialistic ideals it spreads, but TikTok mostly seems to have been fairly harmless compared to Facebook and Twitter which just seem to be rage amplifiers.

Also Telegram groups seem to be a hive of scum and villany, but also the organising ground for people fighting for their freedom, so I don't know how I feel about it.

Young people seem to have drifted away from the "broadcast" social media systems and towards messaging systems, but as a middle-age person without teenage kids I suspect I'm probably being naive.

TikTok is far from harmless. Google "West Elm Caleb" for an idea of TikTok's own brand of insane toxicity.

Since alternatives are springing up perhaps a good one can emerge, no?

That's what I've been working on. With self-hosting (or paid hosting) the incentives change. I'd love any feedback people have. https://havenweb.org/

It's the survival of the fittest. Whoever can make the most number of people feel the worst wins.

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