SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
One of the not-funny ironies of the 21st century has been that everything we thought was social media is actually just mass media, except it’s terrible and broken. Luckily, journalists and creators are finally figuring out how to leave the old media models behind and enter the future.
The term “mass media” became popular in the 1920s to describe pop culture in the age of industrial production. Mass-produced books, movies and radio shows created a paradigm for audiences where thousands or even millions of people could experience the same exact piece of media at the same time. Before the 20th century, most people experienced their entertainment live, in theatres, bars and concert halls, where the performance was always slightly different. But a movie or radio show was the same for everyone, no matter when or where you experienced it. You could buy standardised media products for the masses, just like shoes or cars.
Social media didn’t change this formula. Platforms such as X, Facebook and TikTok were made for mass consumption. Every post, video and livestream is a product aimed at the broadest possible audience. Yes, you can target your media at certain demographics if you like, or create filter bubbles. But the whole reason why follower counts matter is because we are still in a mass media mindset, looking to see who can deliver content to the largest number of people. That isn’t “social” anything. It’s mass production under a different name.
What if we tried to make media that was truly social, without AI slop and political scapegoating? One possibility is something called cosy media, which refers to apps or other content designed to help you connect with small groups of friends, often in a friendly, calming environment. Imagine the media equivalent of meeting up with friends to knit or play cards and talk beside the fire.
The game Animal Crossing, with its low-stakes missions and cute, natural setting, is an iconic cosy-media experience. App developers are trying to reproduce that aesthetic in social apps too – anything from a group chat to an online book club can be cosy. But it isn’t just about aesthetics. A cosy social app is designed to limit your social interactions with random strangers, steering you towards trusted friends instead.
I have been using the photo-sharing app Retro a lot recently. Unlike Instagram, where Retro’s creators cut their teeth, Retro is primarily intended to be used among small groups of trusted friends. And there are no algorithms pushing videos from strangers into your feed. When I open Retro, I feel like I’m hearing from my pals rather than tuning into a fire hose of nonsense and advertising. Nothing I post there is intended to go beyond a few dozen people. Like a group chat app, Retro lets you choose who you want to talk to in a mindful way, rather than shouting into a giant algorithmic void.
We may need cosy media to soothe ourselves in a frenetic, scary time, but we also need news and analysis. Unfortunately, many of our trusted news sources are falling apart. Journalists in the US, where I live, are leaving media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and National Public Radio, citing diminishing resources and editorial freedoms.
Some, like economist Paul Krugman and technology researcher Molly White, have created successful, crowdfunded newsletters for their work. But most journalists don’t want to go solo: good reporting and analysis often require a solid team. That is why many are forming worker-owned co-operatives to start new publications, where they get institutional perks like lawyers, editors and helpful colleagues. This model is also good for consumers, who don’t want to search out and subscribe to dozens of individual newsletters just to catch up on current issues.
The worker-owned co-op model has already been a smashing success for several publications that started in the past couple of years. 404 Media [Paywall warning] is one such site, breaking news in the worlds of tech and science. Defector is a worker-owned co-op that covers sports and politics; Aftermath covers games; Hearing Things covers music. Flaming Hydra (to which I contribute) is a collective that publishes political analysis, interviews and cultural criticism. Coyote Media is about to launch in the San Francisco Bay area, to cover local news. And there are many other worker-owned local media co-ops forming.
Like mass media, social media often leads to loneliness and isolation. The point of cosy media and worker-owned publications is to rebuild community and trust. We might be witnessing the birth of a new information ecosystem, designed to help us understand the world again.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 27, @03:23PM (8 children)
If all you want is a static website, Digital Ocean will host it for essentially free. My monthly usage charges are usually around $0.01, and I just noticed that I have around 1GB of content on the site.
You do still pay for a domain name, if you want one.
https://www.digitalocean.com/solutions/website-hosting [digitalocean.com]
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Sunday July 27, @03:59PM (7 children)
Did you click the single link in my 11-word post basically pointing to that link? Neocities [neocities.org] offers free hosting. Like $0.00 free.
(Score: 1, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 27, @04:40PM (6 children)
My point is: if you're allergic to quasi GeoCities branded training wheels hosting solutions, you can do your own thing elsewhere, also for Free - with zero advertising injection by the host.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by sgleysti on Sunday July 27, @06:43PM (5 children)
Did you click the single link in my two short posts basically pointing to that link? Neocities [neocities.org] doesn't inject ads.
I get the sense you didn't click the link. I'd encourage you to at least take a brief look. Sure, it's not for everybody.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27, @07:54PM (1 child)
You must be new to the Internets. Nobody ever clicks links. Ever.
(Score: 3, Funny) by sgleysti on Sunday July 27, @08:27PM
Nah, I just never learn. I also still believe conversations would be better if people clicked links and read a little bit in order to obtain some kind of information about what they're replying to before replying...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 27, @10:52PM (2 children)
The link that leads here? https://neocities.org/browse [neocities.org]
It's just a different vibe with in browser HTML editing, etc. from a "bring your own tools" hosting solution... GeoCities was fine for plenty of people, but it did seem to be marketed squarely at the 14 and under crowd and NeoCities seems to be riffing on that brand - not that you can't build whatever you want in NeoCities, just that it carries that aura of blink tags and two frame animated GIFs.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by sgleysti on Monday July 28, @12:37AM (1 child)
Yeah, sure, you can get there from that link. For what it's worth, I used a text editor on my computer to make the site I have with Neocities and just uploaded it. Don't have to use their in browser editor if you don't want. I suppose I don't care about the "aura" of a webhost if they offer the service for free and it works.
It was just weird that your first response mentions Digital Ocean, claims it offers free hosting for static pages, but then mentions a monetary charge, even though it is small ($0.01). A cool thing about Neocities is that I don't have to enter personally identifiable information (like a payment method) to host a webpage there because the hosting is actually free.
It was also weird that your second response mentioned ad injection, which I'm guessing Geocities had but Neocities does not.
These responses made me think you responded without looking at what I was posting about. Just an odd way to correspond on a forum...
In the spirit of reading things before responding to them, the OP of this entire thread was talking about bringing back Geocities. That's what Neocities is up to.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 28, @02:05AM
For what it's worth, my websites in the 1990s were all hand edited HTML in Windows Notepad or Notepad++... I tried a number of 100% Free hosting solutions around those years and eventually settled on just paying for one to avoid the hassle of having to find a new one and transfer my domain every time one of the free sites closed up or started charging or throttling or whatever.
> claims it offers free hosting for static pages, but then mentions a monetary charge, even though it is small ($0.01). A cool thing about Neocities is that I don't have to enter personally identifiable information (like a payment method) to host a webpage there because the hosting is actually free.
While that is cool, I have maintained a .com domain since 1997 - and keeping anonymous with that was much harder back then than it is now, but even now you're still quite traceable and paying for the domain.
>ad injection, which I'm guessing Geocities had but Neocities does not.
In today's environment, I would guess that Neocities will probably "play it cool" for much longer than those free hosts of the 90s did, but back then, in the Geocities days, rapid enshittification was the rule - not the exception.
>bringing back Geocities. That's what Neocities is up to.
Let's hope Neocities lasts considerably longer than Geocities did.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]