The important thing that I think people have lost sight of in this whole new tech boom is who stands to benefit most from all this. Is it the regular people who now feel like they have a platform to contribute their two cents? Or is it businesses who have almost rapped the innocence of our social and networking media and plastered it with pop ups, click here ads, and boxes upon boxes of supplements that can help you lose weight, gain mass, or sites to help you find a friend? The ads companies and people who sell ad space are the ones cashing is on our public and supposedly free forums, which leads me to pose my question… Is free speech still truly free?
I think that, no matter how much control we think we have, we have no control when it come to big media corporations. In the end, the user hardly ever profits. We use their software on their platforms and make no money for the content that we provide.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The bigger companies that have all the money control what adds and what websites pop up.
ReplyDeleteEven on Google, assuming that their website does not already filter some from us like in China, the companies with the most money can afford to include longer and bigger ads with more words, so that when we search, Google pulls up their website before the one of a smaller company or person because of the number of compatible words.
On youtube, for example, the video with the most views comes up first, becoming even more likely to get viewed again. These processes only reinforce already existing voices, primarily of those already in control.