So, one lens on the weird direction of the modern Internet is that entities created to route you to cool stuff, e.g. search, social media, have especially in the last 5-10 years been taking an ever larger part of the pie via having giant networks. Google can now control whether a news site lives or dies. Meta can take 99.5% of all ad revenue displayed next to an artist's work and they have no power.
One big mystery to me is why YouTube, which is run by demonstrable rent-seeker Google, nevertheless gives creators close to 50% of ad rev by their stuff. The result? The most vibrant online creation scene. Not to say it doesn't have loads of issues and bullshit, but you really get high production value stuff, creating a virtuous cycle.
But most sites don't do this, so in addition to harming good things like arts and journalism, they're harming their own food source.
To my mind it'd be like if there were a bunch of cool shops and displays but you had to walk to them. Then someone comes along and creates a perfect trolley system. Win for everyone until all users are using only a single trolley service. That service then keeps raising the price, making it so most of the money in the wallet goes to the trolley, not the cool shops and displays. Eventually that has to have an effect on trolley usage. How that ends up shaping the Internet, I don't know.
Btw, just to throw some numbers on this. If I got one-hundredth of a penny every time a comic of mine was viewed next to an ad on Facebook, Instagram, etc. it would be my best revenue source.
@AlexanderKingsbury Right, but that won't work for artists. We don't get paid unless people can find are work. If I could drop out of social media entirely, I would, but my business would collapse.
@i_understand@AlexanderKingsbury Right, but they don't. Not usually, which is why even really well-known sites also have Instagram, Facebook, etc. Additionally, if I post anything but naked content on Facebook (e.g. asking people to see a product launch or come to a signing) their algorithm crushes it.
Could just be my weird local cohort, but have you noticed this linguistic thing with youngish kids where they preface statements, almost like a comic header? E.g. instead of "I think [explanation about thing]" it's "What I think about [thing]: [explanation]." So, like, instead of "I think what's going on is that the cat is shy because she lived in the wild" you hear "What I think about the cat: she's shy because she lived in the wild."
It seems to me to have something to do with memes presented for comic effect. E.g. instead of saying "I felt like AAAA" you say "What I felt like: AAAA"
How do you think the switch from passive to active TV consumption has affected the medium? I wonder if it helps explain the rise of infinite sequels and catering to fandoms?
Why do you think so few artists attempt to create a magnum opus? It really seems most people who are good at something want to just keep making it in various forms, but don't try to make a single lasting great work, even when they're in a position to try.
As an example of what I mean, take Virgil who became well known for pastoral writing, but always had an eye on writing a national epic. A few people still read Georgics and Eclogues, but the Aeneid is the Opus.
Tolkien's another obvious example - lots of little stories and books and things, but his eye was on a grand English epic.
Art Spiegelman - did lots of weird alt comic, but then also made his massive glorious Maus.
Maybe it's always been unusual but I'm somewhat disappointed that you don't see more of this sort of thing. Like, people who make solid sitcoms for years but never even try to make a lasting glorious comedy.
Without saying any names, there are lots of living artists who I adore, and I always want them to stop and take out a few years to focus on create something really hard and strange and at least potentially monumental.
So it looks like a lot of remaining inflation is rent. In that case, wouldn't you want to lower rates to increase home-building and home-ownership in order to reduce rent pricing?