Reading this I had to think of an experience I had this weekend; when useful tech starts using us. Recently I watched Ballerina Farm, an influencer pumping some trad farm lifestyle. Anyway in this episode they get a milk robot and cows. The milk robot is Dutch-made (I’m from Holland). The Dutch are hi-tech masters of efficiency (and dairy ;) Then this weekend I attended this huge 3-day music festival (60.000 people) called Lowlands (in Dutch countryside). I was impressed by the science fiction film like hi-tech sound stages and immaculate organisational efficiency, though something was missing. Obviously commercialisation has kicked in hard with large scale presence of big global brands. Luckily I had a free ticket, but ticket prices were steep and once inside they’d created their own economy with their own tokens so you were disassociated from actual real markets prices. Actually we were being milked for our money relentless. Late capitalism polder-style. It felt like I had been trapped inside the milk robot of Ballerina Farm. Strangely the hi-tech light and sound didn’t result in an immersive experience, but instead I felt removed from the music, distanced. (Not in the least since the music was so loud everybody had to wear earplugs, which you could conveniently buy at every bar.) Anyway I had great experiences too, in a small stage the experimental Afro-punk of Kin’Gongolo Kiniata from Kinshasa awakened the vibes. When the audience asked for more, a stage manager quickly removed them from the stage. No time for an encore in a perfectly managed schedule.
I actually laughed when you said that you felt like inside the milking robot, great story! Re (3): that's why I'm so bullish on SaaS social media. Whether it's Farcaster, Lens, or Kiwi, it helps to align incentives between the users and the product. It's not easy - that's why we're struggling to make ends meet - but I think it's the long-term goal. I am optimistic it's going to work out because products like Netflix, Substack and Patreon taught millions of people that you can actually pay for content on the Internet. Maybe social media will end up with a dual model, similar to the one we saw in TV - you could have cheap/free TV stations filled with mid content and tons of ads or pay for high-quality, ad-free HBO.
With Netflix, I do see a problem in that it teaches that you should be able to access a wealth of content at a flat rate fee. Made me think of the piece Joan wrote on All You Can Eat Media. Realistically, this does only work at a huge scale, not for any small platform immediately reducing potential competition. With Patreon the Apple 30% fees add another challenge for creators (well to reach apple users) which might be just another stark reminder of the need for alternatives, or else we get vendor lock-in, and the only way out is to give up on that audience. I had a similar feeling of being milked for money this weekend at the city festival. The gigs were so and so except for one band and the philharmonic orchestra - but it was free so fine. But the prices were very steep - you could have sat in a restaurant and your drink would have cost less than there. There were also a bunch of those people trying to snap pictures to then sell them to you, and companies advertising whatever. Makes you think: what if I could just exist for a moment without constantly being told to do something good for GDP or shareholders.