Post #3242654

@f4rr3r@sunny.garden I think it's a delicate issue. Cuz on one hand, working in the entertainment industry online and independently is a valid career path now, and there's an argument to be made that that's a better way for it to exist than as something gatekept by wealthy executives. But on the other, I know that chasing the algorithm is gambling. Hard work isn't invariably rewarded, and success does not guarantee any kind of stable income. I see so much desperation on YouTube, people releasing something that underperforms and then changing the title and thumbnail over and over hoping that the stars will align and the algorithm will reward them for their efforts. It's not about impressing the right people or finding your audience, it's just about pleasing a machine that has no accountability and that we know rewards the worst impulses. The machine can decide you're not successful because you're black or gay, and it can decide you are successful because you're racist or homophobic, because it's just an algorithm, it just shows people what it thinks will get clicks, and the billionaires who control it are under no pressure to reveal their influence over it. So now instead of wealthy entertainment industry executive gatekeepers, there are wealthy social media executive gatekeepers who get the entertainment without any need for properly waged or contracted employees. They just extract the entertainment from us with a machine, and then use that machine to feed it back to us, and try their damnedest to get us addicted to using it. I was lucky to have parents who didn't ever encourage "being famous" just for the sake of it as a desirable aspiration. I feel like I would be the same if I had a kid who wanted to be an influencer. I *would* encourage creating and performing, but not a desire for fame, and certainly not algorithmically generated fame.