As anyone who remembers the 90s/00s can remember, the internet was supposed to liberate us. Free access to information meant everyone would be educated and informed, and able to freely communicate and organize.
That’s not what happened. Corporations turned it into a tool of oppression. Technology has never and will never save us from capitalism on its own. Since the early 1900s we’ve been capable of providing food, housing, and medical care to everyone but we don’t. Technology cannot change that.
Social media is a particularly vile tool. It allows corporations to totally shape the reality of people who use it. To the point where people are so divided it’s all but impossible to oppose the government.
Decentralized social media might be better, at least for now. But it’s still removing the human element from our lives. Instead of talking to each other we create little echo chambers for ourselves. The Fediverse will not fix that.
The only real solution is to reject social media entirely. Which was happening, but now I fear decentralized social media is pulling people back in.
Yes, I’d argue though that technology in itself is neutral. It’s the way people use it that is helpful or harmful. So it’s not a problem of tech in general, it’s the problem of our society that allowes for harmful uses and enshitification. When the whole world is on it’s way to a totalitarian regime run by the super rich, all technology is falling into the wrong hands and is going to seem very evil.
This is why I’m here. I’m a firm believer that there is no good or bad technology, it’s what we allow it to become. I have my friends, I break out of my echo chamber, I know where social media fits for me. I know it may be different for others, but as long as the fediverse remains neutral it’s on each of us individually to limit it