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It's idol worship at every conceivable level. Humans in a perpetual loop of idolisation of other humans. An expanding influencer class and a misled influenced class, neither with tangible merit and both deserving pity. It has become the mark of a wise man not in what he engages in, but what he avoids engaging in. The avoidance of participation in these social media systems, with their ego-generating algorithmic manipulation, may just become an authentic indicator of a person's true intelligence and level of consciousness going forward.

I really don't understand this. Are peoples' lives really so unbelievably meaningless and empty? (Don't answer that) It's completely weak and pathetic.
 
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Unfortunately, this is not what some of us old-guard Internet people want. YouTube charges me $9.99 for premium because it "supports creators" and gives me an ad-free experience. yet every channel over 10,000 subscribers has product placement in the video. the creator has to self-report the product placement and rarely does and instead I have to pause and find when the ad is done so I can watch the video I wanted. Far from an ad-free experience.

Instagram's supporter feature will fall to the same fate.

In addition, all I want from all of these companies is you take my $10 a month then you agree to show me zero ads and don't do creepy tracking stuff with my data and presence. That's all I want. If you want to give some of that money to creators, good do that but Treat me like a customer, not your advertisers and don't show me any advertisements at all. This is all I want from all of these companies. I thought Twitter Blue would be ad-free but alas, it's not.

If I see an ad and recognize it as an ad, I'm done. I don't care if it's a video of my son's first steps that my wife decides to post to Facebook instead of iMessaging it to me....if there's an ad or pre-roll or break, I close the window and can wait to see the first steps when I get home. if an RSS feed I subscribe to gets ads, I delete it. I'd prefer that sites take my money to give me an ad-free feed. some do but many don't. I assume if enough of us opt-out of participating in ad-driven content, sites will get a clue but I must be in a group of 1:1000 at this point. sites now do take money from us but very few guarantees an ad-free experience in exchange for my cash. YouTube being a good example. For $10 a month, I should have no idea what NordVPN is but here we are...
 
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I’m guessing the Instagram models content will become a lot more like Onlyfans content. Once you have many millions of people paying $30+ a month for various content hidden behind paywalls. I can’t see them policing it very seriously.
 
i have never posted to Instagram. I follow some aviation stuff mostly to look at air craft photos. If I had to pay for any of it I would just stop using it.
 
Unfortunately, this is not what some of us old-guard Internet people want. YouTube charges me $9.99 for premium because it "supports creators" and gives me an ad-free experience. yet every channel over 10,000 subscribers has product placement in the video. the creator has to self-report the product placement and rarely does and instead I have to pause and find when the ad is done so I can watch the video I wanted. Far from an ad-free experience.

Instagram's supporter feature will fall to the same fate.

In addition, all I want from all of these companies is you take my $10 a month then you agree to show me zero ads and don't do creepy tracking stuff with my data and presence. That's all I want. If you want to give some of that money to creators, good do that but Treat me like a customer, not your advertisers and don't show me any advertisements at all. This is all I want from all of these companies. I thought Twitter Blue would be ad-free but alas, it's not.
I have ad free YouTube on my Mac’s with UBlock. I pay $0.00 a month. It does not stop the in video ads but my mouse moves past those ads.
 
there is nothing on instagram worth paying for.

this sounds like an OF competitor, which will surely be used by thirsty simps
 
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I have ad free YouTube on my Mac’s with UBlock. I pay $0.00 a month. It does not stop the in video ads but my mouse moves past those ads.

I only watch YouTube on my television so skipping ads is a bit harder with the Apple remote....and no ad-blocker exists on AppleTV. I joined Premium for Ad-Free first and second, the thought that I could block ads and still put money in creator's pockets so sounded like a win win and then I still get ads.

Based on the screen shot from my creator dashboard below, either there are VERY few people paying for Premium OR YouTube's "cash to creators" proposition is mostly BS:
download
 
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Unfortunately, this is not what some of us old-guard Internet people want. YouTube charges me $9.99 for premium because it "supports creators" and gives me an ad-free experience. yet every channel over 10,000 subscribers has product placement in the video. the creator has to self-report the product placement and rarely does and instead I have to pause and find when the ad is done so I can watch the video I wanted. Far from an ad-free experience.

Instagram's supporter feature will fall to the same fate.

In addition, all I want from all of these companies is you take my $10 a month then you agree to show me zero ads and don't do creepy tracking stuff with my data and presence. That's all I want. If you want to give some of that money to creators, good do that but Treat me like a customer, not your advertisers and don't show me any advertisements at all. This is all I want from all of these companies. I thought Twitter Blue would be ad-free but alas, it's not.

If I see an ad and recognize it as an ad, I'm done. I don't care if it's a video of my son's first steps that my wife decides to post to Facebook instead of iMessaging it to me....if there's an ad or pre-roll or break, I close the window and can wait to see the first steps when I get home. if an RSS feed I subscribe to gets ads, I delete it. I'd prefer that sites take my money to give me an ad-free feed. some do but many don't. I assume if enough of us opt-out of participating in ad-driven content, sites will get a clue but I must be in a group of 1:1000 at this point. sites now do take money from us but very few guarantees an ad-free experience in exchange for my cash. YouTube being a good example. For $10 a month, I should have no idea what NordVPN is but here we are...
I agree, but I also suspect that the reason we see so much baked in advertising is due to inconsistent payout by the platform. If a creator worries their content might be demonetized they have to find their own sponsor.

That’s not true for everyone, of course. Many are just double dipping. Some have even stated that they always put an ad in to ensure consistency between videos that require a sponsor message.

Then there are the videos whose content is already an ad.
 
IG is grossly overestimating the value creators bring to their followers. The impulse to check on the latest musings and images of a creator is a rather shallow endeavor - provide them with a free alternative to a different shallow impulse and most will choose it instead.

In other words, people aren't using these products because they enrich their lives, ie creating actual value. They use them as distractions, and as everyone knows, the online world does not have a shortage of free distractions.
 
Instagram Subscription .... 0.99
Instagram Subscription .... 0.99
Instagram Subscription .... 0.99

Hm, which one should I pick? Oh, never mind... moving on.
 
I agree, but I also suspect that the reason we see so much baked in advertising is due to inconsistent payout by the platform. If a creator worries their content might be demonetized they have to find their own sponsor.

That’s not true for everyone, of course. Many are just double dipping. Some have even stated that they always put an ad in to ensure consistency between videos that require a sponsor message.

Then there are the videos whose content is already an ad.

Oh man, your last point. Very illegal to not disclose but literally no one is policing it. It took 10 years for FTC to FINALLY investigate the Kardashians for lack of disclosure of placements and they have like a billion followers across the entire family so if they can get away with repping diet products w/o disclosing for a decade then there's no hope for consumer protection from the millions of 'influencers'
 
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25 years ago we even had free ISPs, like Freeserve, in the UK. Steadily users realised they had few rights to complain about service - it was free after all! All social media seems to have ended up this way. Like them or loathe them, companies with subscriptions not only cause their customers to pay - in return they have to continually develop and monitor the service. I have gradually been eradicating social media from my life. It's far more interesting to use computers to create and not feel the need to share it with anyone except friends and colleagues. I dumped Instagram and Twitter over a year ago and never looked back. I find forums with like-minded people far more interesting and I still love YouTube. It will nevertheless be interesting to see if Instagram improves with a subscription service.
 
This subscription feature will just be used very extremist people to make more money from the hate speech and conspiracies they post every day. They already ask people for money and donations.

Now with incentive for more profit they will become even more extreme and encourage other people to copy their business model.

Facebook was already a curse during the pendemic and elections and now they want to double the money they make from lies and misinformation.

I’m not going to call this **** company Meta. They are Facebook and I will not accept their rebranding whitewash.
 
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Good times to be an active Twitter user. Curious if they will benefit from people annoyed with the Metaverse.
 
Tedious isn’t it? The only thing they “create” is narcissistic lowest common denominator attention seeking garbage that brainless moron “followers” lap up.
Probably has more to say about the sort of stuff you're looking for or you aren't actually using it. Actually some really educational posts and I've been using it for the last few years to talk about sustainable farming practices and have over 50k followers now. I've also learned a lot from fellow farmers and made some really good friends through it. To be honest I'd be really happy if I could monetise it somehow because it does take a lot of time and effort.
It is what you make it.
 
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