Most of the internet is out of your reach, but the barrier isn't just algorithms. In another language, the same platforms turn into to whole other worlds.
In the last 5 yrs, I travelled to a total of ~10 different countries with completely different cultural backgrounds from different contients. I see different internet apps and youtube in different languages but disagree that they are “different” at all.
Every country has their own CashApp to send money by phone to people & shops. Also have their own WhatsApp/WeChat/Line/Facebook/Local-Twitter/local-Tinder/Billibi/Local-Amazon or online shopping store/Tiltok/redapp/ etc… Similarly Youtube’s front pages in every country I visit is 50% Gaming/AI Slop with sexual clickbaits or 50% Mr.Breast/ishowspeed/gossip-style celebrity who is -Insert Countey’s Language Here- and in their early 20s capturing and targetting Gen-Alpha ADHD attention span with red arrows pointing to shocked O face thumbnails.
So I disagree with the article. Sadly what captures the attention of or a 3 yr-old indian kid whose parents left him with an iPad, and what makes him laugh is the Annoying Orange, or Ryan and Vlad and his sister Anastasia, who if you look it up has (or her parents really) ammassed a fortune of over $1billion before she even turns 8 yr olds. There are local copycat kid-celebrities like them in every fucking country I visit. This child attention exploitation business model is too good. And internet all over the world is getting enshitified the same.
That is however different than to understand or know the internet culture of each country which is not the same off course. In pakistan they sell AK47s on facebook, in yemen they sell drugs on twitter, in Bali they openly advertise escorts on twitter, in mynamar they were selling genocide on facebook, and israel is doing that now all ovet their internet and social media, and many if not most countries employ government spies and shills on these websites for censorship. … so I guess all the different goals but same means
In the last 5 yrs, I travelled to a total of ~10 different countries with completely different cultural backgrounds from different contients. I see different internet apps and youtube in different languages but disagree that they are “different” at all.
Every country has their own CashApp to send money by phone to people & shops. Also have their own WhatsApp/WeChat/Line/Facebook/Local-Twitter/local-Tinder/Billibi/Local-Amazon or online shopping store/Tiltok/redapp/ etc… Similarly Youtube’s front pages in every country I visit is 50% Gaming/AI Slop with sexual clickbaits or 50% Mr.Breast/ishowspeed/gossip-style celebrity who is -Insert Countey’s Language Here- and in their early 20s capturing and targetting Gen-Alpha ADHD attention span with red arrows pointing to shocked O face thumbnails.
So I disagree with the article. Sadly what captures the attention of or a 3 yr-old indian kid whose parents left him with an iPad, and what makes him laugh is the Annoying Orange, or Ryan and Vlad and his sister Anastasia, who if you look it up has (or her parents really) ammassed a fortune of over $1billion before she even turns 8 yr olds. There are local copycat kid-celebrities like them in every fucking country I visit. This child attention exploitation business model is too good. And internet all over the world is getting enshitified the same. That is however different than to understand or know the internet culture of each country which is not the same off course. In pakistan they sell AK47s on facebook, in yemen they sell drugs on twitter, in Bali they openly advertise escorts on twitter, in mynamar they were selling genocide on facebook, and israel is doing that now all ovet their internet and social media, and many if not most countries employ government spies and shills on these websites for censorship. … so I guess all the different goals but same means