I stopped really using social media a few years ago, something just clicked within my mind as I aged, reaching a point in life where the endless scrolling and caring about whatever -- most likely negative -- events were being thrown into the public eye. The rise of a reactionary Hell in which media companies and users push controversy as users eat it up as an algorithm continued to feed them what they wanted to hear became evident. In regards to politics, it has absolutely shaped the way people think and act towards varying opinions. This realisation came to me one day as I realised how much time I was wasting, how negative reading it all made me feel. Why would I put myself through this? What do I gain? My interactions themselves either contributing fuel to the fire and wasting my own finite time. I deleted my Twitter account for a few years, to which I recently rejoined to support the Movies & TV Shows community. Though my interactions on the platform have remained thin. The same feeling appears whenever that tab opens. I rarely use Twitter, and I absolutely avoid the platform as a whole, going as far as even setting my region to one with a language I couldn't understand so that I wouldn't be plastered with all the negative news headlines.
While I do think Elon Musk is a clown of the highest order, I didn't care at all when the whole buyout war was taking place. Whether he obtained the platform or not was the least of my concerns, and I have kept relatively out of the know in regards to the events now that he has purchased the platform. Though I keep seeing online the moves he is making in regards to changing the platform, and what I have seen just makes me feel sick. The realistion of the dystopia we are slowly being pushed into, and how less I feel I want to support it by being part of these platforms. I have also realised how Hive is a shining light in the face of that dark dystopia in its current state, though of course Hive still has a plethora of weaknesses that could push us into a similar territory. It was recently announced that Reddit Willy Wonka would begin charging users for verification, making the verification badge effectively pointless in showing who was a person of interest and who was merely a regular user on the platform. This in particular I could not care less about, but it's how this is being used that is particularly scary.
Charging users for verification pushes the world of social media into dangerous territory where privacy is pushed aside in favour of a more digital form of identification. These days, where the world is incredibly sensitive, the freedom of speech argument gets thrown around a lot. We noticed a massively weird situation over the pandemic in regards to the vaccination status of individuals and the freedom restricted from them if they refused to comply. How digital forms of certificates were created that granted people access to everyday locations. It was scary how few really saw what was happening, and how the weird system we live in pushed so many of us into the now standard 'left vs right' argument where asking questions were considered radical. This move with Twitter to open up verification badges to all opens the door to the dystopia of prioritised search results for those who comply, effectively shadowbanning those who don't. Going forward, those who pay up and hand over their personal information for verification will have their Tweets bury the rest; to which degree does this end?
Should we be celebrating the introduction of such a system, where those who don't pay and do not wish to hand over their information which may tie them to their accounts? Should we be celebrating the prioritisation of content because someone refuses to hand over their name, address, and banking info to social media platforms? Place this next to the sudden rise of accounts being banned for 'impersonation', when does this personal information handover end? At which point do we have to hand over screenshots of our faces and personal IDs? Even without that, everything you post as a verified user is tied to your bank account and thus entire life. What do you now feel so free to post about? A scary outcome unfolding now is the celebration from certain political sides in regards to this move, claiming it is a saviour of free speech on the Internet, celebrating the prison they are putting themselves into. Would you use Hive if an algorithm chose the posts you see? Would you use it if you had to pay and hand over your personal information in order to receive support from other users?
I had the realisation of how much potential Hive now has given it is free from these issues. How Hive is void of an algorithm that puts your identity into a game. Our usernames can be anything we please, and the data we share here is purely up to us. If you don't want to share your face, name, location, then you don't need to. I don't want to stroke the Hive blockchain too much, again as mentioned above that Hive is still far from perfect. Perhaps it isn't a true solution, but I have noticed that in terms of 'social media', Hive is all I actually use now. It is the one platform that I can actually feel human on, where I connect with other humans. An authentic experience that shows culture, life, varying viewpoints, and interests without it being pushed at me to benefit someone else. This isn't even taking into consideration the fact that you directly earn from your content and time spent here.
While I don't care for Twitter, I do feel the fear of the future. Things are getting weird. It's quite scary to see the moves we're making and how so few are noticing, how nothing is really being done to stop it. That the fun of the world is being vacuumed out in pursuit of digital slavery. We see some uproar regarding these changes but our system is built on anger and aggression, where those who speak up are instantly shut down and, excuse me for using this term, gaslit. Pushed into a specific demographic they may not even be part of. Twitter's recent move is a sign that the price for freedom is in fact nothing. It is to ignore it, and escape from those hands which aim to control you. Are your devices making your life easier, or are they turning you into cattle?
I know I will be using Twitter even less going forward, and hopefully we will see Hive users making more of a shift back to Hive for interaction rather than relying on the platforms which clearly go against the core values of Hive that we aim to grow. I think this era we are going into will feature the definite sign as to whether Hive can survive; but the cost of that growth still saddens me. I don't want to see people turned into products, people made to think that others are their enemies, that an algorithm should place one person above another. I hope that we don't see this dystopian digital identification system made widespread; banning people from platforms or hiding their opinions for not complying.
So, I have a few questions to you all: How do you feel about the moves Twitter is making lately? Are you seeing the writing on the wall regarding its dystopian push? Are you likely to leave Twitter?