Ask Lemmy

Online surveillance and other enshitification is becoming so rampant and apparent, I think it's actually pushing people offline. Maybe it's just my bubble but I'm seeing way more earnest effort from others to meet IRL for various activities.

This is a really good question. With everything that's currently going on, it can be easy to get stuck in fight or flight and be stuck in a doom loop that this is all there is, and ever will be. But that's not how it goes. Already worldwide people are rejecting AI, and it's crashing to the ground. Also worldwide, Right wing politicians are predominantly being voted down into obscurity. People are hacking hardware they own but have been locked out of, to allow free use. This is a created space away from the corporate ownership that plugs us in for battery powered add revenue. We are quietly saying, what do we want, and how can we build it ourselves. I feel like green spaces are going to make a comeback, places to go that don't require spending money, places to gather together and exercise, to spite the predatory gym industry or just enjoy nature. Sharing resources in spite of the finite resources being treated as infinite by corporations, builds spaces to gather and trade. An absolute rejection and demystifying of "needing the new fangled thing", creates workshops for how to build with what you have. And sharing skills. What about bringing back computer rooms to gather together and game or learn. Whatever we imagine we can build, and if all other avenues have been eradicated, we will just build these. Just to shove it back in their faces.

We're already seeing it with Gen Z blank face. People don't react to others, in part because they could be being recorded.

I dunno. I hope I can go out without being to much different.

Why ask the question about a hypothetical future or even currently when we have been living in a dystopian surveillance society for decades now.

Snowden is already a long time ago and he just exposed what so many people, including myself, knew has been happening. The consequences are already here. The ubitquos nature of surveillance passed this tipping point decades ago as well. Just the other day I heard my coworkers talking about their TVs always listening. I was like your cell phones have been doing this for ten years now, are you kidding me!?

Consequences:

Loss of privacy

Control of opposition for whoever is in charge of the apparatus

Control of societal narrative or zeitgeist

Manipulation of all monetary systems

We’re already at the point of hiding from the T.V. to write privately in your journal, and the state can put you on trial for erasing your phone memory, so that’s neat. I can’t imagine we’re too far away from getting a knock on your door if you don’t have any devices plugged in that they can monitor you through. Establishing personal privacy will eventually be considered reasonable suspicion. “What exactly are you trying to hide from us?”

Everyone has multiple identities depending on the context. People will get more careful keeping them separated from each other. E.g. my Lemmy account must never touch my real life family identity

Things will get complicated if government id becomes required for social media like they're trying to do. If that happens, you will end up with only one "identity", and people will have to be really careful with it. No more hot takes or nonconforming or politically spicy opinions. Just today I posted a comment I knew would be unpopular, because I felt safe doing so. It wouldn't be safe anymore for anyone involved.

People will need to defend their honour; losing face online will be really bad. Right now if someone is a dickhead and misinterprets your comment, you can just ignore it because it doesn't really matter. But if it's tied to the real you, you need to correct and clarify ASAP. Can't leave misunderstandings alone anymore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect

I have noticed my behaviour being affected for several years now.

It's already changing lives. I did some stupid shit in my teens, I would hate if it was recorded. Teens now have that knowledge that anything can be recorded and shared easily with the world.

I don't think they'll do any of the dumb stuff I did at parties.

Internet Archive folks just did a podcast episode about this: Mass Surveillance and the Loss of Fun. Basically everyone is on stage putting on an act all the time.

Just look at China. Subdued is the word.

It could be a great equalizer if everyone was just as under the microscope as everybody else. The power-tripping types will never allow that, however.

fisting, it will be a lot like fisting. uncomfortable but you'll get used to it.

It affects my associations in that I don't use some of the applications and platforms they, the larger society, use to interact with each other and also that I am reluctant to even contact people at all if they have spyware or LLMs in their phones, cars, computers, etc.

As for if it will affect the way in which people already under heavy surveillance interact with each other, I expect psyops to be extremely effective currently but clearly not absolute as demonstrated by fascists and China losing the US election.

What is a content algorithm if not surveilling and studying civilians to push chosen content in front of them and control how they act, what they buy, where they travel, etc.

There is an increasing demand for tech-free spaces.
I envision that we will collectively develop increasingly stringent etiquette regarding when it is appropriate to use (or even carry) communications tech. E.g. venues with a phone locker at the entrance. Also simply shunning public use.

Think carefully before you answer. They are watching.