Social Media Profit Driven Enterprises

While using social media we need to remember that it isn’t run for our benefit, but to make as much profit as possible for the shareholders. This makes certain operations better because they are more profitable. 

It's one of the reasons I really don't like some algorithm making decisions about what and in what order I see things. The algorithm for any of these services is based not on what I want to see, but what the company will keep me on the site for the longest time and make them the most money. It's interesting, I don't really mind having ads in my timeline. I just ignore them. It's the fact that the order in which things are shown aren't based on anything that I care about.

I really like to have my entries presented in (reverse) chronological order. If you put an add between some entries, that's OK with me. Just don't muck with the entries that I want to see.

Thinking about Facebook, Twitter, and the others as profit-making entities helps keep me from getting too worked up about things. After all, I grew up with broadcast television and am used to the add-based model. As long as the ads aren't obtrusive I'm OK. I don't really like pop-up ads because they get in the way of my actual interest. Ads that start playing the minute I hit a page cause me to immediately get off the site. If I want to hear your pitch, I will click on your ad. Don't shove it in my face.

I'm also unlikely to pay for things on social media sites. I already pay for streaming and I don't want to pay for reading articles just to avoid the ads or let people that I'm me.

I think that users need to realize that corporations are greedy. They will work to get every ounce of profit from their enterprises. Media outlets are no different. It we want to fight greed in social media, we need to make it more profitable for them to give us what we want and shun those outlets that don't do that. 

Fight with your pocket book and hit them in the only place that they care about -- THEIR pocketbooks.

Moving to Streaming

 We have dropped our cable television and now have only 1GIG Internet service from Fidium. This will reduce our bills and provide us with service. 

We have adopted Roku equipment for our televisions. We don't have all the new-fangled smart TV's, but have added Roku streaming devices.

We still like some local TV, so we have adopted YouTube TV. We also have Amazon Prime and Paramont+. Have nad Amazon Prime for some years and use it to make purchsses, music streaming, movies and original programming. We go a free year of Paramont+ from T-Mobile and decided to keep it after the free period.

It's early, but so far, things seem to be working well. The streaming also has some other advantages, for example today I am writing this on the laptop while watching the Youtube TV on the large monitor. This is something I couldn't do before. You can probably tell that we don't have a lot of the latest technology and really don't want it. But, we are moving into the future.

The objective of this move is to reduce costs so I don't think we will be adding any additional services although we may change services as we use those we have. So far, the setup of services seems to be OK for an old retired guy and his younger and still employed wife.

More as we gain more experience with this setup.

Another Mastodon Update

 

Here I am again after spending even more time on Mastodon. (breedlov@mastodon.sdf.org to be specific). I'm finding it entertaining. As you probably know, I abandoned Twitter the day that Musk announced his intention to buy it. I felt it would be the shit-show that it has become and I didn't trust the rich kid to make it any better. In fact, from what I read it is quickly sliding to the right to join the other "T" social media site backed by Little Lying Donald.

I'm still getting the hang of it and I don't spend a great deal of time there, but it is most definitely becoming one of my "Other Places". Interestingly enough, I like the web interface better than the IOS interface (sorry, don't have Android to check it out.) The web interface seems to be more flushed out and allows me to do more with the site.

So far, I don't really have a theme to the 200+ posts I have made. Mostly, I respond to things and post articles with comments that I have found on Feedly. But, that is the same pattern that I follow on other sites. I'm a bit of a news junky and like to see what's going on in the world (yes, I follow more than US News). In fact, I like to have different views than the US press and talking heads. I track the UK, Germany, and Al Jazeera among others just for that reason.

I have added many of these sources to Mastodon for tracking, but I suspect that I will get most of the information from them on feedly. I like the interface and it allows me to see pictures and get the gist of articles easily without having to read the whole thing.

On the topic of following, I have not unfollowed anyone so far and have followed a larger number of individuals than I did on Twitter. Not sure why this is. I'm just trying things out to see what works best for me. So far, things are working the way I thought and are holding my interest. I'm not sure, however, how many toots I am missing because they scroll by. 

I did go to "slow mode" to keep things from scrolling off the screen when I am on the site as I like to #Explore and view the #Federated posts (they really whiz by).  As you can see from the picture I probably still miss some toots because of the sheer volume at tome times.

I'm just getting into following hash-tags. I'm trying out the advanced interface on the web version to see if this helps. It will take some time to see just what works best.

More later.