JustinH

JustinH, 1 month ago to random

Remember when the major complaint about Instagram was how so many people posted pictures of their food? When Instagram’s biggest annoyance was that people were being too authentic?

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/dont-trust-everything-you-see-online

JustinH, 1 month ago to fediverse

"We Need To Rewild The Internet"
An absolutely excellent read (and great analogy) by @mariafarrell and @robin Probably the best piece I've read all year.

I often struggle to think of a term for "appearing messy from a distance is often, on a human scale, healthy actually." Comparing the social web to an ecosystem is exactly it.

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

@fediverse

JustinH, 1 month ago to random

When tech bros say "AI will work for us" they mean that in a literal way, it will work for THEM. Everyone else however, is working for the AI:

https://www.404media.co/bad-amazon-bosses-wayne/

JustinH, 2 months ago to random

"Instead of finding new ways to power the internet besides “clout,” we’ve decided to power everything on internet attention. At the start of the social web we assumed content would get better. Platforms would get better. We, ourselves, would get better. And I simply do not think digital media literacy can reverse where we’ve found ourselves now."

From this week's above-average issue of Garbage Day by @ryanbroderick

https://www.garbageday.email/p/clout-world

JustinH, 2 months ago to random

I literally just wrote about the likelihood of this happening in my most recent piece, funny to see some confirmation. As AI gets better than humans at appeasing "The Algorithm" it will completely take them over.

https://www.404media.co/facebooks-algorithm-is-boosting-ai-spam-that-links-to-ai-generated-ad-laden-click-farms/

JustinH, 2 months ago to random

"I ain't lookin' down, but I see no one above me."

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/tiktok-is-just-tv-again

JustinH, 3 months ago to foss

@pluralistic Is one of my favorite authors, and has a Humble Bundle going on right now to support The @eff

(If you're into the politics of #foss I recommend "Walkaway"!)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/cory-doctorow-novel-collection-tor-books-books

JustinH, 3 months ago to random

Sounds like @davidpierce read my AIR Method!

http://www.airmethod.net

JustinH, 4 months ago to random

JustinH, 4 months ago to random

Just discovered this awesome cookbook by Leanne Brown, called "Good & Cheap" for people with very tight budgets (designed around SNAP) that she gives away online for totally free:

https://www.leannebrown.com/all-about-good-and-cheap/

The .pdf is here

https://books.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf

It's also a fantastic intro to home cooking basics in general, I wish I had this book when I was in my early 20s!

JustinH, 6 months ago to fediverse

New post up on Stay Grounded:

"Instead of paying human moderators or otherwise not growing too-big-to-moderate, social media companies use imperfect automated tools to remove enough of the Nazi stuff so as to not to give off “Nazi site” vibes while hoping users will put up with least some Nazis. They are hoping that you will sit at their table and tolerate some Nazis."

(Special thanks to @rysiek)

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/a-billion-nazis-at-the-table

#Fediverse #Twitter #StayGrounded

JustinH, 6 months ago to random

Friendly reminder that if you're encountering Nazis on a social media platform (that aren't banned within a few hours) it means one of two things:

• The owners are ok with Nazis being there
• The owners are unable to effectively moderate

In either case, you should question if you really want to be contributing your efforts to a place like that.

JustinH, 6 months ago to random

"An LLM is not outputting based on what is true, or even based on an internal model of what it believes to be true. It’s outputting what you are most likely to perceive as plausible, which is often, but not always, the same thing. A scarier-sounding way to phrase it is this: GPT’s function is to generate the inputs least likely to set off your brains’ bullshit filters."

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/how-chatgpt-makes-the-statue-of-liberty

JustinH, 7 months ago to threads

Anyone feel it's socially irresponsible for journalists to be promoting Threads as an "alternative" to 𝕏? I do like the work of @caseynewton but I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see ostensibly smart tech people amenable to the genocide-in-Myanmar company just because it's not Musk.

https://www.platformer.news/p/twitter-is-dead-and-threads-is-thriving

#threads #meta #musk #twitter #𝕏

JustinH, 7 months ago to random

"According to the Hollywood Reporter, ahead of its decision to end The Problem, Apple approached Stewart directly and expressed its need for the host and his team to be “aligned” with the company’s views on topics discussed. Rather than falling in line when Apple threatened to cancel the show, Stewart reportedly decided to walk."

Shocked that Apple would behave this way /s
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/19/23924549/jon-stewart-apple-ai-china-cancel

JustinH, 7 months ago to twitter

Another otherwise great piece by (one of my favorite writers) @chaykak about the decline of #Twitter, but STILL doesn't mention #Mastodon or the #Fediverse (he does mention #BlueSky and #Discord ??)

WHY.

C'MON.

(still a good read tho)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-the-internet-isnt-fun-anymore

JustinH, 8 months ago to fediverse

Two great reads on why #goodreads is so bad now and why it can't get better.

https://countercraft.substack.com/p/goodreads-has-no-incentive-to-be

https://janefriedman.com/i-would-rather-see-my-books-pirated/

If you're looking for an #fediverse alternative, check out BookWyrm: https://bookwyrm.social

JustinH, 9 months ago to mastodon

Tired of tech journalists proclaiming #Mastodon "too complicated" to ever catch on in a meaningful way?

Well, I've just put the finishing touches on a guide so easy, so (dare I say) elegant, that even the Verge staffers should be able to figure it out.😉

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/an-extremely-simple-guide-to-mastodon

JustinH, 9 months ago to random

"Now is the Time for an Open Digital Society" by @carl

If you like my writing, you'll really like this piece. Optimistic but still realistic. The foundation for a better web is here, we are now in the "get the word out" phase.

https://carlheath.se/time-of-change-now-is-the-time-for-an-open-digital-society/

JustinH, 10 months ago to random

A while ago I bought the domain mstdn.nyc, with the intention of doing exactly what @seano has done with masto.nyc, but I didn't have the time to dedicate to educating myself. I've just set my domain to re-direct to theirs!
I'm very excited for the potential Fediverse instances can offer to IRL geographic communities. Facebook and Nextdoor's methods never quite cut the mustard, IMO!

JustinH, 10 months ago to internet

"'For you' isn't." (by me!)

“For you”, “home”, "popular", etc. Are often friendly-sounding ways of saying “not what you signed up for”. When we scroll algorithmically-sorted feeds with ads and inserted content, we are surrendering control over our own sense of reality to for-profit big tech companies.

#Meta's own study demonstrated that chronological feeds are less addictive. Thankfully apps like @Mastodon and #RSS readers exist that grant us control again.

http://www.staygrounded.online/p/for-you-isnt?r=tv8a1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

JustinH, 10 months ago to internet

I asked #Llama2 to write a few words about social media in the style of me and I think it absolutely nailed the vibe I'm going for.

#meta #ai

JustinH, 10 months ago to threads

"Threads is a New Mall" (by me!)

Now that #Threads is here, I have a strong feeling we're going to be seeing more attempts to paint Mastodon as "uncool". When corporations can't fight something with money, their only hope is to discourage it via culture. The Fediverse is an existential threat to Meta and they know it. Remember Google's "No Moat" memo? "Open source is eating our lunch".

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/threads-is-a-new-mall-but-still-a

#Fediverse #Mastodon #Meta

JustinH, 11 months ago to reddit

"Reddit is a Dying Mall" (by me!)

I predict that what will happen to #Reddit is the same thing that is happening to Twitter and has already happened to Facebook and frankly, actual shopping malls. The business side of things will churn along divorced from the content which will become ever more generic and culturally irrelevant.

https://www.staygrounded.online/p/reddit-is-a-dying-mall

#lemmy #kbin #RedditMigration

JustinH, 1 year ago to random

Not that I was very interested in BlueSky to begin with, but this is a really good breakdown by @rysiek on why it's decentralized in name only:

https://rys.io/en/167.html

What I don't really understand is what the sales pitch from BS actually is for anyone to run an instance of their own?