5L Issue #034
5L Issue #034
Escape from dangerous, very meta, expensive submarines
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A post for 7.52b readers…
I crept back on to social media these past few weeks. It started with LinkedIn. I have a new job and felt I needed to be a proper adult and sulk back onto LinkedIn with my tail between my legs. Then, I had kept a FB profile on the go to plug Five Links, so that was very easy to log back into. And then FB became a gateway drug to Instagram. And now I’m back, endlessly scrolling through advertorials and humblebrags and people on soapboxes talking about masks and vaccinations.
Two things I’ve learnt so far on my return to social media:
Despite all its flaws, I had definitely started to feel isolated and lonely without social media in my life. I have fallen out of touch with so many people, it feels impossible for me to reach out and connect with them in a traditional way. So, without social media, I just don’t learn what’s happening in friends’ lives.
Despite all its positives, I am definitely starting to feel isolated and lonely with social media in my life. All my scrolling through manicured snippets of peoples’ lives; it feels hollow. You bought a new house. Great. You’ll never invite me to visit it. You got a new job. Great. We used to work together but now you don’t answer my calls. You’re drinking a cocktail. Great. Oh no, I can’t, my hangovers get pretty bad these days.
This link isn’t quite what I’m getting at, but I still found it helpful.
Of all the sins, envy is the dumbest, but luckily it’s self-imposed.
I write these words for everyone in the world except for one person. This post is for the 7.52 billion people who are not the richest person in the world. In other words, Elon Musk, if you are reading, this is not for you.
To everyone else, I have some news:
Someone in the world has more than you, get used to it.
Someone Has More Than You. Get Used To It.
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Big crush..
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SV Delosumberge..
(via r/interestingasfuck)
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Very Meta..
Some of you may have followed the recent pivot out of Facebook. It turns out Zuck et al haven’t been loving the way their platform has been faring of late, and so they’re now holding themselves out as an augmented-reality company.
Yeah, I don’t really know what that means either because it doesn’t exist at scale yet, but the message I’m taking from it all is that if you start to make a few mistakes and don’t like the way your reality is staring back at you, just flick the switch and build a whole new reality with fancy holograms and lens-flare and then you can go back to reassuring yourself that you’re actually much better than those common people who just don’t understand the good you’re doing for humanity.
Also - they changed their name to Meta, and this is the best take I’ve seen on that-
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This is extremely dangerous to our democracy..
I’m not sure if I missed this being linked when it came out a few years ago — if it’s old news I apologise — but I thought this video was a powerful look into what happens when corporations acquire the ‘free press’ that supposedly acts as a regulating factor in a democracy.
(via r/HolUp)
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- Bennett
Cover Photo by Branford Harris on Unsplash