Comment by Funes-

15 hours ago

I'd love to see what a global ban for TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X would look like. Even better: massive breakdown of iOS and Android installations. Just for a couple of weeks, then revert to the nightmarish status quo we live in. Now that would be an interesting experiment. The change in people's behavior would be palpable for those fourteen days, I bet. It'd be so much fun.

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Funes-

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nthingtohide  15 hours ago

Daniel Dennett was strong proponent of alternative information distribution mechanisms in case of internet goes down for everyone. We haven't even studied such scenarios.

  • Funes-  14 hours ago

    I'm a strong proponent of alternative information distribution mechanisms within the Internet. An "anti-normie" kind of channel of information. Hell, up until the web 2.0 came along, the Internet was exactly that for the most part.

gekoxyz  15 hours ago

We got something similar with social interactions during covid lockdowns (if your country had those). Btw i feel like people would go literally MAD, I can see it when just WhatsApp crashses for just a couple hours (doesn't happen often but I remember people's reactions when it happened). You can get a feel of what it would do for yourself by getting a dumbphone and limiting yourself from accessing social media.

  • Funes-  15 hours ago

    >You can get a feel of what it would do for yourself by getting a dumbphone and limiting yourself from accessing social media.

    I already do that. It's the most alienating and pessimism-inducing thing. I'd just love to see a world where people aren't hunched over, staring at a screen for 90% of their waking life.

anthomtb  9 hours ago

I have trouble lumping those 5 services together. Maybe its something to do with me being a middle-age American male?

Instagram/X/TikTok: Hot garbage. Good riddance. Ban them and this country is a better place.

Whatsapp/YouTube: Actually quite useful. The former for real-time global communications. The latter for visual how-to's of all kinds (bicycles, home maintenance).