cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30775163
Haven't watched commercial TV for going on 15–16 years. Ads appearing in streaming services are jarring enough and feel insulting, but forget that to some people it's normal and so actually works.
Go ad-free for a few years and you'll understand. Kind of like being reborn into Idiocracy quality. "What the fuck did I just watch? Who the fuck is that shit even aimed at? Someone got paid for that???"
Yeah it’s insane watching something at someone else’s house and your immersion in a show or movie or YouTube video is just completely destroyed by an ad.
Go and watch the movie "Network."
It went from cutting edge satire to quaint docudrama in real time.
Commercial TV shows, that enshittification predates its own name. The [lack of] quality is fine-tuned, so your typical Joe is barely willing to watch it - otherwise, the commercial TV competes with more profitable subscription services of the same corpo.
It feels kind of weird, even. I've been avoiding TV since I was fourteen; now I'm almost forty, I'm seeing more and more people doing the same. Even my old mum. (Setting up a LAN so I can download her favourites and she can watch them from the TV was great.)
They want a good show to attract as many viewers as possible. To then watch the commercials.
In 2004, a french TV executive famously publicly said he was in the business of selling "available brain time" to advertisers.
Same with youtube and all ad based social media / entertainment.
If the service is free then you are the product.
Thats sadly not accurate any longer.
You are the product and you will pay.
Upgrades! :)
I had this thought about 30 years ago. It is a required moment for truly self aware people (if you happen to watch cable tv like I did as a kid).
This community is the first one on lemmy of its kind. It sits between the idea of anarchism/anti-capitalism and left leaning economic policy.
Our goal is to make people aware of the dangers of corporate control, its influence on governments and people as well as the small but steady abrasion of empathy around the world indirectly caused by it.
Current topics this includes but is not limited to:
Feel free to debate this but beware, corporate rhetoric is not welcome here. If you have arguments, bring them on. If its rhetoric trying to defend the evil actions of corporations, we will know and you will go.
Our declared goal so far is to have all companies and individuals worldwide capped at 999 mil USD in all assets, including ownership of other companies, sister companies and marital assets. The reason for this is that companies (and individuals) are not supposed to resemble small(?) countries with a single leader(-board) and shareholder primacy. Thats why we feel like they must be kept in check indefinitely.
But companies will just wander off The argument that large companies will just wander off is valid, which we embrace. We dont need microsoft, apple, google, amazon and other trillion dollar companies. There are small competitors being kept small and driven into brankruptcy by anti competitive behavior of these giants or simply bought up and closed. If starbucks left tomorrow, we would not have an issue with this.
But then we have x little microsofts that all belong to the same person(s) If in fact nobody was allowed to accumulate more than 999 mil in assets, they would not be able to own all these. And like defending agains burglary, it is not about complete defence but time and effort. You only have to keep the thief occupied long enough for them to be caught, give up or make a mistake.
But these giants have tons of IP which would then limit our growth Thats another topic we must touch on. We will (only this one time) take a page out of russias playbook and demand that IP of non complying companies (assets over 999 mil USD) will be declared invalid, which opens them up to be copied.
But then they will "live" in one country that doesnt accept this Correct, and they should be taken into custody the moment they enter the airspace of a country that supports this act.