I mean there’s Reddit ofc, as well as Twitter in its entirety, Discord is implementing some dumb updates, there are issues with Tumblr as well as everything to do with Meta, and I’m sure there are plenty more (and I haven’t even touched other digital media, for example the Sims). Why is it all happening in the span of about a couple months?
Public companies are legally required to always do their best to grow year over year. Eventually these companies get so large they can’t realistically get more market share so they have to figure out how to make more money from their users. This leads to them squeezing users for cash in the hunt for short term gains because they’ve already realistically capped out on how much money they can make per year. It’s a dumb system that can’t work in the long term.
Capitalism slowly shits up everything. Even the things it helps create.
I mean this in the most general way possible. Not just platforms. Even if reddit was profitable it would still continue. It’s just part of the cycle of seeking not just profits but ever rising profits.
It’s just more obvious lately on digital platforms because it has been kind of compressed into smaller amounts of time.
That which is free must find a way to cost.
That that makes money must find a way to make more.
And slowly but surely its takes on a fine shine. A glean seen from a distance. But when you get close you realize. “oh, its fucking shit all over it.”
I swear every problem in the modern world is like two degrees separated from capitalism.
Yeah… I mean, we on one hand, we now grow plenty of food to feed almost 8 billion people, cured polio, greatly extended lifespan all over the globe… But on the other hand (waves hand at everything).
Eternal growth on a finite planet ain’t possible, but capitalism demands it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hard for it to be otherwise, considering it affects almost everything.
I’d rather focus on publicly traded companies as the main root of evil before dealing with capitalism itself. Private companies tend to not be so destructive - many are fine staying where they are, instead of growing infinitely like cancer, eating everything around them.
This! It is not like private companies per se are the problem, but rather megacorporations that are pressured to generate unimaginable and entirely unsustainable profits that required to increase from year to year. Private companies must not necessarily be more unsustainable than publicly-owned (by this I mean state-owned) corporations.
Silicon Valley Bank collapsing is putting pressure on tech companies to actually turn a profit, so they’re turning to slimy tactics just to survive IPO
I don’t think it’s from a specific bank, but it is probably related. From being inside the tech world, the general sense is that the “macroeconomic environment” is different, because of the interest rates, so companies are getting pressure from all of their investors and banks to behave differently. At a lot of places, this has led to layoffs, trying to reduce costs, etc. It also manifests as trying to squeeze out more profit at all costs.
I like the “enshitification” term for the actual process that Reddit and others are going through.
