I always hoped that something would save us from psychopaths like Zuck - advertising has only ever been about 1-2% of gdp but these assholes worked out how to grow the pie via addictive dark patterns and overt behavioural manipulations. Right thinking societies are slowly realizing these platforms only take and add no value whatsoever. Like tobacco, if you can cut of the pipeline, you can stop the harm.
I am one of the seniors that finds myself engaged with FB way more than I want to be. Well, Gatehouse (also known as gut house) bought our local newspaper which used to be a decent daily, serving a community of 35,000. Now it resembles an industry magazine that generates little original content and some days NONE. It has ONE local reporter. That's it. It's a fools errand to even submit a letter to the editor.
So, the default is Facebook. You go there to see what the local community theater is doing. To read the free content that is offered by the local radio stations, only one of which does any actual original reporting. But their content is also canned purchased programming with a smattering of local reporting in the morning. The several stations slant hard right.
We just lost our theater that showed first run movies to a viscous storm that decimated the mall the theater screens resided in, but again, if someone is liking a movie at the local art cinema, you'll see it there.
And people talk about what's happening in town. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes corrosive.
No, it's not better than a functioning newspaper. It's simply what remains.
I always hoped that something would save us from psychopaths like Zuck - advertising has only ever been about 1-2% of gdp. But these assholes worked out how to grow the pie via addictive dark patterns and overt behavioural manipulations. Right thinking societies are slowly realizing these platforms only take and add no value whatsoever. Like tobacco, if you can cut of the pipeline, you can stop the harm.
Thanks, Matt, that’s a work in progress. I think I crafted my question too narrowly around my own interests. Of the bigger picture, Facebook and Instagram as you guys said, still have massive audiences, but what does it mean ultimately for advertising on those platforms if they are in a longer term death spiral? Is advertising on Yahoo still effective?
Ok, I listened to the entirety of your latest podcast, Meta is Dying and I have a $64,000 question. Wait, no, maybe more a 64 billion dollar question: If Meta is dying, and their sole economic engine is advertising, is it still worth it for the small entrepreneur to advertise on their networks, principally, Instagram but you can add Facebook to the list too? I’m a big fan of your show and BIG newsletter!
Not really. The algorithm doesn't show my posts on IG, and hasn't in a few years. Maybe if I did reels. People are using it as a portfolio, to have if somebody looks you up. Stories have a better reach than posts. It's what I put up and look at, mainly.
I deleted most of what I had posted in my business account on FB years ago, so fed up with the junk of ads. Just didn't have time to delete it all and close the account. It became useless years ago.
Not a day too soon, but also it's like … duh? Mark is perhaps the most perceptively stupid of the tech bro billionaires in that his delusions aren't even grand like Musks or Thiel's (dark as those grandeurs are, they genuinely invoke imagination in a sort of otherworldly way). Marks tho? I mean it's all SO banal and SO expensive
I always hoped that something would save us from psychopaths like Zuck - advertising has only ever been about 1-2% of gdp but these assholes worked out how to grow the pie via addictive dark patterns and overt behavioural manipulations. Right thinking societies are slowly realizing these platforms only take and add no value whatsoever. Like tobacco, if you can cut of the pipeline, you can stop the harm.
I am one of the seniors that finds myself engaged with FB way more than I want to be. Well, Gatehouse (also known as gut house) bought our local newspaper which used to be a decent daily, serving a community of 35,000. Now it resembles an industry magazine that generates little original content and some days NONE. It has ONE local reporter. That's it. It's a fools errand to even submit a letter to the editor.
So, the default is Facebook. You go there to see what the local community theater is doing. To read the free content that is offered by the local radio stations, only one of which does any actual original reporting. But their content is also canned purchased programming with a smattering of local reporting in the morning. The several stations slant hard right.
We just lost our theater that showed first run movies to a viscous storm that decimated the mall the theater screens resided in, but again, if someone is liking a movie at the local art cinema, you'll see it there.
And people talk about what's happening in town. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes corrosive.
No, it's not better than a functioning newspaper. It's simply what remains.
I always hoped that something would save us from psychopaths like Zuck - advertising has only ever been about 1-2% of gdp. But these assholes worked out how to grow the pie via addictive dark patterns and overt behavioural manipulations. Right thinking societies are slowly realizing these platforms only take and add no value whatsoever. Like tobacco, if you can cut of the pipeline, you can stop the harm.
Awesome!
Thanks, Matt, that’s a work in progress. I think I crafted my question too narrowly around my own interests. Of the bigger picture, Facebook and Instagram as you guys said, still have massive audiences, but what does it mean ultimately for advertising on those platforms if they are in a longer term death spiral? Is advertising on Yahoo still effective?
Not soon enough.
Ok, I listened to the entirety of your latest podcast, Meta is Dying and I have a $64,000 question. Wait, no, maybe more a 64 billion dollar question: If Meta is dying, and their sole economic engine is advertising, is it still worth it for the small entrepreneur to advertise on their networks, principally, Instagram but you can add Facebook to the list too? I’m a big fan of your show and BIG newsletter!
If it gets you customers, then yes. If not, then no.
Not really. The algorithm doesn't show my posts on IG, and hasn't in a few years. Maybe if I did reels. People are using it as a portfolio, to have if somebody looks you up. Stories have a better reach than posts. It's what I put up and look at, mainly.
I deleted most of what I had posted in my business account on FB years ago, so fed up with the junk of ads. Just didn't have time to delete it all and close the account. It became useless years ago.
Not a day too soon, but also it's like … duh? Mark is perhaps the most perceptively stupid of the tech bro billionaires in that his delusions aren't even grand like Musks or Thiel's (dark as those grandeurs are, they genuinely invoke imagination in a sort of otherworldly way). Marks tho? I mean it's all SO banal and SO expensive