Comment by anovikov
4 years ago
Not very relevant to the topic but maybe not all is lost for the print media.
I have switched away from online news to the print ones in the last few months because:
- this way i can avoid popups, jumping pieces of content intentionally distracting me so i pay attention to ads
- ads are not as stupid there (i don't live in the U.S. and i see US-centric ads which are totally, completely out of relevance to my demographic - from "senior living homes" to private jet flights - with every kind of crazy shit in between but nothing i ever buy or can think of buying)
- content itself is a lot better edited, not clickbait-y (because you can't fucking click on paper!) and overall seems to be written by actually literate people, not some peasants that seem to write online news pieces recently
All in all, it dawns at me that at least for now, the Internet has been a failure. It failed to deliver any positive life changes we've been promised 25 years ago, and brought about many negative ones. There are only two online resources relevant to me that seem to make any positive value: Tinder and Upwork. Even of them, Upwork seems to be a detriment to developed nations (including U.S. that created it), serving mostly as a vehicle of scams for fraudsters from the poor ones.
Buying tickets online? It killed the airline industry. I can't fly comfortably anymore unless i get that private jet, which i can't afford. This is directly because of Internet facilitating price comparison, and people "optimising" airlines by price alone down to the drain.
Trading stocks online? Only brought about day traders - one more form of gambling. I'd be more than happy to go to the bank and buy a paper mutual fund certificate, and lock it up in my safe.
News online brought "targeting" and "optimisation" through search bubbles and as a result, a society destroyed by political divisions.
Taxis online? Only a benefit in poor countries or in terribly terribly overregulated ones in rich countries (think NYC). They killed livelihoods of millions of people and killed quality of service elsewhere.
The list goes on. Internet seems to be more than just a failure - it is a pure evil. It confronted us with ourselves (as opposed to some polished, educated, even if overly rigid, central authority that served as an interface before), and we turned out to be monsters we had no idea we were.
And because this thing has no way out of it, i am terrified at the realisation that only thing that can save us may be some form of communism, where the State will simply ban or mandate so many things it will not be a market economy anymore.
Including, most probably, a ban on free speech. I can't see a way for free speech to work in a world of search bubbles and online anonymity. Craziest conspiracy theories will inevitably replace reality for a vast majority of people - who vote - this way.
And democracy without free speech is a joke.
>I have switched away from online news to the print ones in the last few months because:
>- content itself is a lot better edited, not clickbait-y (because you can't fucking click on paper!) and overall seems to be written by actually literate people, not some peasants that seem to write online news pieces recently
clickbait might not be a thing, but attention grabbing headlines to get you to read/buy the paper is still a thing. Besides, most (all?) major news publications have an online presence, and they're they're probably sharing stories/headlines between the print/online formats so I doubt there would be any difference in quality.
>There are only two online resources relevant to me that seem to make any positive value: Tinder and Upwork.
Not wikipedia, google maps, or e-commerce? It seems like many of the things that the internet provides have been so integral to your life that you've forgotten about them.
>Buying tickets online? It killed the airline industry. I can't fly comfortably anymore unless i get that private jet, which i can't afford. This is directly because of Internet facilitating price comparison, and people "optimising" airlines by price alone down to the drain.
1. Google flights provides legroom in addition to prices. you're free to compare on price and comfort here.
2. I'm not sure how the alternative (not having comparison shopping) is any better. Are you just hoping that the benevolent airlines would always put customer comfort above profits?
>Trading stocks online? Only brought about day traders - one more form of gambling. I'd be more than happy to go to the bank and buy a paper mutual fund certificate, and lock it up in my safe.
Disagree. Now I can buy ETFs with management fees in the single basis points (eg. 0.03% for VTI) with zero trading fees. In the past I'd either have to contend with mutual funds with exorbitant management fees (1-2%), or pay $50-$100 per trade.
>Not wikipedia, google maps, or e-commerce?
Google maps yes. You got me on that. Wikipedia, well, sort of, yes... it had a good beginning but is losing trustworthiness as it's being exploited more and more, it's surely a good source of info, still. e-commerce - i bought stuff online maybe 3-4x in my life (rare items that are never stocked in shops). Food delivery apps are a particularly notorious kind of evil, killing good businesses first.
Flights - it's not just the legroom. Because people started picking on the price, airlines had to get rid of business class or make it very flexible in size (meaning - use crappy "transformer" seats that can switch back to economy when needed). Or just simply leave middle seat empty and call it business. When price wasn't the only variable people chose tickets by, airlines could be a lot more comfortable with their costs and tried to sell premium product first - which is natural for every other normal business, premium product by definition brings higher margins. It's not just what i choose, it's what other people choose. Here in EU, we simply don't have any decent business class anywhere anymore.
Stocks - ETFs were a thing before internet and they don't require it. Vanguard exists since 1975 and it's fee structure didn't change since.
> I can't fly comfortably anymore unless i get that private jet, which i can't afford.
Huh? Pick a decent airline, and long haul international business class is pretty comfortable. First, I hear, is even better. Expensive, but a heckuva lot less so than a private jet.
For really long distance flights, yes things are OK, but i'm flying over 5 hours maybe a couple times per year and never did since covid. But on "short" haul (intra EU) flights, and these are typically 3-4 hours from where i live, there is now either no premium service at all or "euro business", which is economy with middle seat blocked, best case with a transformer seat that slightly increase seat width by moving inner armrests inwards, but even that is a rarity. Some backwards, poor countries where digitalisation lags behind others, like Romania and Bulgaria, kept it for a lot longer, in fact Bulgaria Air still has proper business class on a few planes, but every "modern" country (France, Germany, Italy etc) destroyed their premium "short" haul service a long time ago.
Belarus hanged in for a lot longer than others, too, and i think for same reason. Russia still does - Aeroflot has proper 3-class service on most flights and at least normal 2-class even on short haul.
> For really long distance flights, yes things are OK, but i'm flying over 5 hours maybe a couple times per year and never did since covid. But on "short" haul (intra EU) flights, and these are typically 3-4 hours from where i live, there is now either no premium service at all or "euro business", which is economy with middle seat blocked, best case with a transformer seat that slightly increase seat width by moving inner armrests inwards, but even that is a rarity
This seems to really be a European thing. Proper domestic business class still exists in Australia (on premium carrier flights between most major cities–even between Sydney and Melbourne, which is only about 1 hour), and I'm not aware of any plans to discontinue it. Similarly, in Japan, domestic flights have first class and business class (never been on either–but both are better seats, as opposed to just blocking off seats in economy). Business class with proper seats is available on domestic flights in China too. First/business class on shorter US domestic flights looks pretty crappy, but I believe it is much better for the longer US domestic flights (such as JFK-LAX nonstop, or Hawaiian's BOS-HNL nonstop route).
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