How is it that, in this day and age, the tool seems to be worth more than the product?
Here's an example of what I mean.
Isn't that the same as saying that one values a pen more than the author who uses it to write something down?
Syndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
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8 replies
Oooh! I had a relatable conversation today.
Wtf are you talking about?
Looking at the thread you linked, it seems like this is some pretty in the weeds drama. And it is driven by a single dev. So I'm confused by how you think this is some society-wide trend.
I feel like your analogy is flawed. As a consumer, I don't care about the pen or the author, really. I care about the book.
To make this very clear to you, here's an example: Mainstream social media platforms make billions, but the people who provide their content do not.
So: Social media software = a tool; I'm sure you can figure out the rest.
I this specific analogy the tool uses the data provided by the user and builds a profile that can be used to target advertising at an individual level.
That is where the worth of the tool comes from, not the people providing the content.
You might think so, but if you check out the link in the post description, you'll see that i'm actually talking about the Fediverse.
Summary: PubJesus, a user you’ve surely come across if you’ve been on Lemmy anytime over the past two years, won’t be posting anything anymore because he’s not being shown any appreciation. Instead, he’s even being punished for his efforts by the very app whose success he made possible in the first place.
So apparently, that’s how it is even here. You shouldn’t do that: The product of all social media platforms is of course the content - advertising is only possible because of the reach that this content enables.
Well, the beauty of the Fediverse is if piefed is developed in a way he doesn't like, then he can use one of the many alternatives like lemmy, whatever bin letter we are up to, or mastodon just to name a few.
Not sure how you associate one person leaving a platform with......whatever the hell you are trying to argue about platform value over user value.
Maybe he'll switch again. That would be highly desirable, because otherwise there will be a lot less interesting content here -since, in reality, things just don't work the way you might imagine them to.
I see what you mean, but even the best software is worthless if it doesn't serve its purpose: in the case of social media applications, that purpose is content, and that content has to come from somewhere.
The idea that it would just appear on its own simply because the possibility exists is a utopian misconception, as Wikipedia, for example, clearly demonstrates.
Functionally, a tool that can produce a product is always worth more than a product.
The hope of course is that the volume of production will eventually outweigh the cost of the tool.