Add "Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?" and move headings

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Christopher Lemmer Webber 2019-07-18 14:22:45 -04:00
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@ -208,19 +208,6 @@ If the problem is users receiving unwanted messages, perhaps the
solution comes in making intentional social connections.
But how can we get from here to there?
** Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
"What if we're making the wrong assumptions about our social networks?
What if we're focusing on breadth, when we really should be focusing
on depth?"
-- from a conversation with Evan Prodromou, initial designer of
both ActivityPub and OStatus' protcol designs
#+END_QUOTE
# - social networks: breadth vs depth?
# - wholesale borrowing of surveillance capitalist assumptions
** Freedom of speech also means freedom to filter
** Don't pretend we can prevent what we can't
@ -232,6 +219,63 @@ But how can we get from here to there?
#
** Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
"What if we're making the wrong assumptions about our social networks?
What if we're focusing on breadth, when we really should be focusing
on depth?"
-- from a conversation with Evan Prodromou, initial designer of
both ActivityPub and OStatus' protcol designs
#+END_QUOTE
What is Evan trying to say here?
Most contemporary social networks are run by surveillance capitalist
organizations; in other words, their business model is based on as much
"attention" as possible as they can sell to advertisers.
Whether or not capitalism is a problem is left as an exercise for the
reader, but hopefully most readers will agree that a business model
based on destroying privacy can lead to undesirable outcomes.
One such undesirable outcome is that these companies subtly affect the
way people interact with each other not dependent on what is
healthiest for people and their social relationships, but based on what
will generate the most advertising revenue.
One egregious example of this is the prominence of the "follower
count" in contemporary social networks, particularly Twitter.
When visiting another user's profile, even someone who is aware of and
dislikes its effect will have trouble not comparing follower counts
and mentally using this as a value judgement, either about the other
person or about themselves.
Users are subconsciously tricked into playing a popularity contest,
whether they want to play that game or not.
Rather than being encouraged to develop a network of meaningful
relationships with which they have meaningful communications, users
face a subconscious pressure to tailor their messaging and even who
else they follow to maximize their follower count.
So why on earth would we see follower counts also appear prominently
on the federated social web, if these tools are generally built by
teams that do not benefit from the same advertising structure?
The answer is simple: it is what developers and users are both
familiar with.
This is not an accusation; in fact, it is a highly sympathetic
position to take: the cost, for developers and users alike, of
developing a system is lower by going with the familiar rather than
researching the ideal.
But the consequences may nonetheless be severe.
So it is too with how we build our notion of security and
authorization, which developers tend to mimic from the systems they
have already seen.
Why wouldn't they?
But it may be that these patterns are, in fact, anti-patterns.
It may be time for some re-evaluation.
# - social networks: breadth vs depth?
# - wholesale borrowing of surveillance capitalist assumptions
** Anti-solutions
(Note that things in the anti-solutions category aren't necessarily