Ladies and gentlemen... FROM the company that brought us "Cadillac CUE" (all-capacitive-buttons information controls)...

...Something nobody wants!

Unlimited venture capital money for 20 years have allowed social media companies to basically do whatever they want without listening to their user base. It was good when they were trying to grow the user base. But now that they are trying to squeeze every dollar out, we're seeing the dark side.

Contrast this with old school media. They are mature and must turn a profit through their advertising. And they are absolutely terrified. Every TV show involves consultants who obsess over tiny details that could make the difference of half a ratings point. They know that if they scare the audience away, they go out of business.

Eventually the tech companies will reach the same level of maturity, but we're not there yet.

YouTube has an ace up its sleeve:

It shares revenue 50-50 (roughly) with creators. And considering the server costs and promotional benefit, that 50% cut is very fairly priced.

Facebook, Twitter/X, Reddit, etc. never shared revenue with creators. And that makes them easily replaceable. But Google wisely made YouTube and video creators financially reliant on one another. And that makes it difficult for something like PeerTube to pop up in a way Mastadon has.

They told me that when laptops came out. Heck, I even used a laptop exclusively through most of the 00s.

Chromebooks would kill desktops. Then iPads. And smartphones. And cloud computing.

And yet by 2014, I was back to building a desktop PC. And had 3 since. Desktops will always have a small market share because they are the only machine that works for serious work (video editing, etc.)

Will I embrace Microsofts cloud computing? Only if it is cheaper price per power than owning my own equipment. Something tablets, phones, laptops, and cloud computing have all failed to do.

Desktop users are "value* users. And I'm skeptical what MS offers will offer good value to cheapos like me.

As much fun as Sync is (and while I appreciate creators want to get paid)...

We're talking like $15-30(!). That's steep for a phone app. All this money stuff is pushing me back to Connect and Jerboa.

I wish Sync well. But I think I'm done with it already.

I was a "Fox News"-viewing turd in high school, too.

Conservativism mirrored what my parents viewed at the time. Seemed edgy. And offered simple solutions to all of life's problems.

Then I grew up. Five years later, I was voting for Barack Obama and terrified of Sarah Palin.

"I owe my soul to the company store" song comes to mind.

Grew up in an old union mining town that had some pretty violent strikes in the 1910s and 20s. Didn't realize it was still going on other places into the 1940s.

Set local minimum wage law to median rent prices. And watch landlords/NIMBYS and employers fight each other. That's the only way to dig out way out of this mess.

You're bringing back nightmares from grad school. The "online" homework problems... Shudder.

What is Reddit...

... Baby, don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! No more!

Counterlogic: Act WAY too interested. Like a crazy person. Unbreakable eye contact. And start asking them very personal questions about themselves with a huge smile on their face.

Meanwhile, I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my Brother color laser.

Yes, the printer didn't have a low subsidized price up front. But now I can enjoy big toner cartridges that seem to last forever. And I can use all the knockoff ones I want. And the printer itself is bulletproof.

Huge fan of Brother!

I tend to lean toward OP's original scenario never happening.

Back when signal jammers first came out, people used doom and gloom to say that autoritarian powers would jam our phones so we couldnt use them. It never happened.

Not because there weren't people who didn't try. But because the United States doesn't have one "government." We have governments. So if an out of control state legislature tries to do something, the FCC fights back. And if Congress gets too crazy, courts will strike it on Tenth Amendment grounds.

In the end, people are going to find a way to record cops. So we will. And -- despite internet pessimism -- most of the people in our governments will actually back us on it.