How modern tech segregates success and upholds old world discrimination

[circuitbored]

There are many ways in which so called "algorithms" can be created to carefully determine who succeeds on the apps and platforms we use every day. As governments have lost their grip on technology in the midst of aging and non-technical oversight, we as entrepreneurs and consumers are increasingly at the mercy of factors we can't seem to figure out in the process of just making a living.

I've seen and heard many complaints online, increasingly over the past years, from independent business owners and content creators that they simply can't manage to get meaningful eyes and ears on their work to be able to create an audience for themselves more and more each day, and that led me to be more analytical about how apps work behind the scenes.

For a little bit of context, I've worked as an application developer myself for over 20 years now, and led many mission-critical projects from start to finish for numerous companies myself, and I'd like to believe that gives me a bit of experience in sorting out complex "bowls of spaghetti" in a way, but in studying modern technology, I've found real explanations for how things work to be very complex and illusive, so I will try to simplify the underlying situation as simply as possible for the benefit of all of us.

Many people now are raising concerns that social media is dying, specifically that creators are making posts, but they aren't being viewed by anyone organically. Through reading the subreddits on reddit.com titled "social media", "twitter", and "Instagram", it's pretty easy to tell that many people are more and more disgruntled with the performance of their social posts over time.

I have raised the issue before, on prior posts here, that now that most of these social platforms sell advertising to everyone, there is no incentive for the platforms to provide organic (free) visibility on their posts to anyone, because making everyone pay for ads generates more profit for the platforms annually. That represents a major conflict of authenticity and trust for platforms to the users that create content if you evaluate it from an objective standpoint.

In testing TikTok, I've found that the platform discriminates against non-High Definition (HD) content heavily, and prevents it from being viewed as much as HD content organically. It seems like a fairly reasonable practice on the surface, but underneath this practice reinforces class-ism deeply. The average content creator does not work with brand new technology. If you don't have the latest model phone with your camera set to full HD when you record every single video, you may be stuck wondering why your videos posted on TikTok or IG don't get more than 200 views, while you watch many with inferior posts sail by you with tens of thousands and even millions of views. The distinction of what drives success on the platform is subtle, but surprising... It's also why perhaps older phones & cameras may get slowed down by software updates, why your older posts are constantly backed up in reduced quality no matter how "HD" you saved them, and why most "affordable" devices come with little on-board storage built into them. We are not by default able to work easily with HD formats on most devices, and that is why the requirement is most harsh on financially disadvantaged people that don't have a choice.

If you observe non High-Def content trending on platforms, there's a good chance that it is being promoted through paid promotion, to explain the potential contradictions to what i am covering here. I am specifically referring to organic content visibility. All of this is just a theory mind you, but it's an educated and experienced theory. I'd be happy to debate it with you on your podcast or TV show, as my studies have not been just superficially based.

It may not seem like a big deal to you if you are someone who has money to burn on the latest and greatest gear to capture content, but the real undiscovered truth here is that if you're starting out financially disadvantaged, or not someone with funding to burn on new technology, this circumstance makes your success a very complex, limited, difficult, and often impossible success hurdle to overcome in finding economic opportunity.

As things become more and more reliant on social media, congress has missed many opportunities to legislate fairness into the model. We now see the results of this failure in platforms deeply influencing everything from legislation to voting to even fueling and influencing wars. It's a critical time in which we must ask ourselves how much power technology and tech leadership should have over our lives.

The above example (HD discrimination) drives consumerism, which sells tons of new tech products every year, from lighting set ups, to laptops, to cameras and more. People who cannot afford these devices often still work to create content for social media, but get held down no matter how good their production is because their content is simply not in HD format on apps, and that is technically a form of imposed class-ism implemented by a technological barrier that most people don't account for. People who already have wealth to afford new gear, or people that are able to run up debt (on credit) to gamble on success are largely more likely to succeed. The people that do run up debt suffer a much harder fall if they don't succeed mind you, which also creates issues in itself.

With all the above being said, this example of HD discrimination leads us to anther point -- The very reason why nepotism is so prevalent in determining success in our current world above actual talent... The simple knowledge of how much HD creation is involved in success o social media is often conveyed as a tip and trick for success within private huddles. This is just one of the tips or tricks for success that are often shared in private among groups of people that want to carve out their own success. This is also often why platforms base their success model off of endorsement of others to succeed and grow. People who work independently without connections are isolated in not being viewed quite often on platforms, instead of being given a chance to be regarded equally for visibility. The football field is often tilted to your disadvantage as an independent business or creator... The thing is, most of us can't tell the field is tilted because of subtle secrets like the HD content rule. There are countless and evolving ways that rules and schemes are tuned to reinforce discrimination of this kind, and it's always geared towards financial benefit and control. Congress fails us if they don't accurately, informedly, and constantly police it all.

This is exactly where consumer protection legislation from Congress desperately needs to come into play.

It is growing more and more impossible to grow success as the field is secretly tilted and overcomplicated by technology and while everyone else trades the secrets behind your back with platform leaders. The only other outcome, if the deeply skewed game continues to run unchecked, is that more people will begin to Hack the planet, and as we know already from the past, that never ends well for the bad guys.