Stephen Downes

Here's the argument: "All our communication channels are morphed into content distribution networks. We are more and more entertained but less and less connected." Now the question is, how true is this? If I take YouTube as an example, I've noticed it's getting harder and harder to keep snippets from commercial media out of my feed. But if I take Mastodon as an example, I can manage who I follow and (depending on my mood) interact with them as much as I want. So there's a sense in which it's how we use social media (and what social media we use). But there is a risk, isn't there? that the fediverse and things like Mastodon will follow previous social media and just stream content at us, because it's more profitable. In the end, it boils down to this: if we're in touch with everyone, it's an entertainment network, but if we're happy not being in touch with everyone, it can be a communications network.