KateJan 23, 2017

Gave a talk on the future of work, thinking: the issue here is that work is broken but higher ed can't find the words for this so instead we say "everything is awesome".

The gig economy, work on demand, uberisation, everything is awesome.

And the thing is, it's really not, not if you get sick or you want to raise kids or you have a tiny hope of owning a home or you want to pay off college debt.

None of these ways of working are awesome, except for the people who profit from your work.

Show threadKateJan 23, 2017

So now I'm cranky, because if people withdraw from the economy like employers have withdrawn from the obligations they used to have towards workers, then the entire economy is not-awesomed.

Except for those 8 men who are worth more than 50% of the rest of us. They seem to be doing OK.

#grumpy

Show threadKateJan 23, 2017

Thinking: it's actually pretty remarkable to think of a platform like this as a place to come and pull up a chair and be grumpy among friends.

This is stuff I'm not saying on Twitter.

So I do have an instinctual trust of something here. I wonder what that is?

#perkingup

Show threadKacey 🌌Jan 23, 2017
@katebowles for me it's less worry about family & future employers looking me up I guess
Show threadKateJan 23, 2017
@kcsaff I think that's it. I have a profile on Twitter that my employer is aware of. That makes me a little careful.
Show threadKateJan 23, 2017
@kcsaff But I think something about the community values on mastodon has also made me inclined to trust the many strangers here. Why is that?
Show threadKacey 🌌Jan 23, 2017
@katebowles idk :) but it seems a lot of web forums have a certain half-life before they're either forgotten, or become a ripe enough target for bullies to take over. hopefully there will be a long, beautiful future here <3
Show threadMOVED; formerly TwrystJan 23, 2017

@kcsaff @katebowles

I agree that this is the pattern, but that only happens because the forum tech is somehow treated as "oh it can't pick a side, what happens happens" (I.e. FB news team debacle)

As in, the engineers of these systems- Twitter, forums, Reddit, facebook- decided a-priori it "wasn't their job" to culture community, and build according to their needs.

They build gardens but refuse to put up fences & weed regularly, then wonder where all the pretty flowers went.

Show threadjmz🦀(CARCIFIED)

@twryst @katebowles @kcsaff more cynically, I think the 'neglect' is often purposeful, encouraged or enforced by the confluence of corporate & libertarian net culture.

Within the fediverse at large, the righteous technocratic free speech rhetoric seems less "it's not my job to stop this", more the similar but chilling sentiment "it's my job to not stop this."

For facebook &c, a nazi or a paedophile gives the same ad impressions as a nurse or boardgame enthusiast–maybe more, in outrage clicks.

Jan 23, 2017 at 10:41amWeb
Show threadChristina HendricksJan 24, 2017

@paralithode @katebowles @twryst @kcsaff This sounds exactly right. When you make money from clicks and shares it doesn't matter to you what is being shared or why; the more outrageous the better.

I moved to Canada from the U.S. and I have to say I rather prefer the less rhetoric here about the infinite value of free speech no matter how repugnant. It really isn't free speech for all when it's "free speech above all."