Imagine there is no YT, no Twitter/X, no Facebook, no Netflix, no Amazon, no Apple, no Google to to search the Web, no chatGPT. Imagine there is no TikTok either (even though it’s not US). Just imagine there is no ‘giant’ tech from anywhere owning any app or service that millions if not billions of people are willing to use.
A world without any of those giant (US) tech companies and services that many of us take for granted.
In that world, what would you use the Internet for? How would you use it? And how much time do you think you would spend online, compared to now?
(my own answer in the comments)
Like I did 25 years ago. We’d all use more different websites and that would be it. I’ll gladly take these giant corpos for granted because if they disappeared, the market would not disappear with them. There would be others which would replace them and in the beginning, they would all be small companies or community driven efforts. A glory to behold.
What do you really think there corporations can offer that can’t be replaced by anyone else? Shit, google in the 90’s was two guys in a garage and ebay was someone’s old computer used as a server and it worked. It can all be replaced.
porn? no change, furry porn sites aren’t run by big tech
gaming? very little change as all I seem to be interested in lately is Space Station 14 and that’s open source with a standalone launcher that doesn’t require Steam
social media? nearly all of that for me is just mastodon and lemmy.
youtube videos going away would suck for the lost knowledge and art and discussion, tho if it meant google died that’s a price I’m willing to pay
Imagine there is no…
YT - dont use it. Don’t like video tutorials, I prefer to read them, don’t like adverts or propaganda!
no Twitter/X, no Facebook - not used them I over ten years
no Netflix, no Amazon - stopped using a few years ago
no Apple - never used
no Google to to search the Web - plenty of other search engines
no chatGPT - soon won’t be there for anyone!
I get my apps from F-droid, I read my web comics on websites, I send emails, I chat with my friends.
Does steam go in your scenario? In that case I imagine GoG will take over there!
You know, the only reason these companies have so much power over your government and so much of your money is they’ve tricked you that you’re missing out without them. 💁♂️
Agree for all except YT. It is unfortunately VERY VERY useful. You seem to have found a workaround that works for you though
You know, the only reason these companies have so much power over your government and so much of your money is they’ve tricked you that you’re missing out without them. 💁♂️
I don’t know if you’re speaking to me specifically here but I would like to point out an issue I see in your comment (as well as in a few others, yours being an excellent demonstration) that I think is at least as important as that supposed gullibility you seem to think is mine/ours in regard to big tech. I’m talking about this habit too many of us share in thinking and maybe I should say ‘in believing’ which seems more appropriate to this type of behavior, that we know (what’s going on, what to do) better than the others around us, while those others are being wrong and they are doing it wrong.
That ‘you’ (are wrong) you insist so much on, vs an implied ‘me’ (I know what I do), doesn’t help much pleading your argument. I thought you might to know that.
Also, note that you have no idea at all regarding my stance in regards to those big tech, nor how I chose to spend my money—like I have zero idea regarding the you do it, but I don’t suppose anything either.
Finally, the reasons you listed are correct, at least partly are (sure, our willingness to use them is an important factor), but they’re also far from being the ‘the only reasons’ things are the way they are in regards to US big tech, and why they have gained so much power. It would too long to list but allow me to share some quick hints:
- DMCA and all its many variations is making sure that no other country will ever be able to… ‘reverse engineer’ US tech (no matter if US tech itself does it since its very inception), giving them a serious edge no matter what potentially better (and non-US) product could come out of liberating apps and services from that anti-copying mechanism. (that is certainly not my fault, nor is it yours, if most countries around the world have bowed in front of that absurd systems, and you can be assured that none of them has done it on their own free will… US economical power of coercion is as real and probably even more efficient as its armed forces (ask Iran and Venezuela, while we wait to see who’s next to get a taste of US freedom)
- It is not by sheer willingness to give away free money that US lobbyists do spend billions trying to force things to go the direction they want them to go, in the USA and around the world too. (what the US lobbyist chose to spend its fortune on that is certainly not my fault, nor is it yours, not anymore than people being receptive to corruption or being unable to realize what is at stake is not our fault, right?)
- That is also not a coincidence if the latest US administration is plaguing the EU with tariffs (and with insults, and now with threats). It wants the EU to cave in and, among a few other things (like, say, our money), they want the EU to get rid of all those ‘mean’ rules we created to rein-in their precious ‘US big tech’ while protecting the data of our citizens. (seeing how clueless and coward most our EU leaders are, I have little doubt the EU will cave-in but that is certainly not my fault, nor is it yours)
We could go on discussing the many other ‘reasons’ that make things the way they are but I think it’s enough, at least I hope so, to show you we can and should focus on much more than blaming our own lazy asses, that is if we want for things to really change, and that we could and should do it without trying to put our own little precious person on a pedestal while telling the rest of the world they’re all being stupid morons.
My 2 cents.
This question looks odd on the fediverse. It seems to assume there’s no european alternatives to the sites mentioned here, which for most of them isn’t true. Or that there are only giant tech alternatives.
You do realized piefed.social isn’t giant tech, right?
I think with a world without access to US apps and online services, the biggest loss to humanity would be Wikipedia. If we narrow it to just giant tech, I think it’s easily doable. It would be a shame to lose the wealth of content on Youtube, but it’s something we can manage with.
In that world, what would you use the Internet for? How would you use it? And how much time do you think you would spend online, compared to now?
About the same as now? I mean, again, hobbyist social media exists, it’s not just giant tech. We’re literally using it. In such a hypothetical world, stuff like the fediverse would be much more popular.
This question looks odd on the fediverse. It seems to assume there’s no european alternatives to the sites mentioned here,
I see your point but no, not really. I only listed the few most obvious example of big tech I could think of, as a trigger.
You do realized piefed.social isn’t giant tech, right?
I do. and that is a neat example of why it matters to keep things in perspective: how many of us is there compared to gigantic Reddit? So, when I was mentioning those few big tech I only mentioned what most people do use, it implied nothing on what alternative may be available.
As a matter of fact their existence is the very reason why I decided to ask the question: wanting to see how people were using the Web and if/how they would need to change that usage without access to US-tech. Reading the many answers, a lot of seem to be fine without US tech but, obviously, we’re also aposting that on Lemmy which make most of us already biased against big tech ;)
I’m very happy suddenly. I would spend exactly the same amount of time online and do exactly the same things
🎵The internet is for porn.🎶
Other companies would come in to fill the void and we’ll have new tech giants, if not in the US then elsewhere. The point is nothing will change, these tech giants are what they are today is because they ultimately provides services that a lot of people want to use. I don’t see them going anywhere.
However, for the spirit of your question, if we just remove the corporate world from the internet, the internet will be what it used to be 20-30 years ago. It’ll be largely run by nerds and enthusiasts, and the user base will be a lot smaller and more niche based.
We’re literally talking on Lemmy/Piefed right now, which would continue to work so I would just come here for recommendations on which search engines and websites to use as alternatives lol
Sounds like paradise, can we make the US this way please?
I feel like Zuckerfuck made this post for ideas on how to circumvent competition.
How did you manage to notice me?
yeah, you’re describing China. it fucking sucks ass if I’m honest
you can “just use VPN lol” but you might be surprised how difficult it is to use a lot of websites with a VPN IP address block. and people around you will generally not be using any of these websites, so the social networks are kind of useless. you basically live on The China App
I still use RSS quite a lot, both for articles and for podcasts.
Lemmy. Peertube. Matrix. Codeburg. Mistral if i cant reach local AI.
Only real lack i have access to movies and shows, and losing steam for new downloads. So that time would have to be spent elsewhere
Of course too, how much of these services would be wiped out with out big tech for auth (sign in fron google, etc) and big tech from cloud services (AWS, Cloudflare, GCP, etc).
If it’s just ditching the big tech firms, I could probably survive well enough. Just trade out yt for something worse and probably worse for my mental health like Odysee ( where I can still find SomeOrdinaryGamers but no Dex or JeromeASF or Jokefish, sadly ). That, or end up trying to find things on peertube.
I don’t think FurAffinity or Weasyl are controlled by large tech firms, so they’d probably be safe. And I’m positive e621 would be considering no big tech firm would ever want that furry porn site on their books.
I’d be safe on Wattpad since I looked them up and looks like they’re Canadian.
I’d have to find a replacement for duckduckgo’s noai search since Mullvad let go of their leta metasearch engine.
I’d probably slim down a couple apps because I wouldn’t be able to use discord to keep in contact with the college club I’m in and wouldn’t be able to play PvZ2 mods like Reflourished any more since it requires a version of the base app. Would have to quit the last Sintendo holdout for me ( Fire Emblem Heroes ).
I don’t gotta worry about streaming services or normal people social media since I don’t pay for streaming or the normal social media ( besides yt ). It’s basically just here and Mastodon for me.
I’d be screwed because I’d lose access to all my Steam games. There goes a lot of what I do for fun on my computer. And my hobby of collecting CDs and occasionally older games would turn a lot more local since eBay would be off the table for me.
My time would probably just end up being less video watching and less computer game playng. That’s assuming I don’t get dragged down some dark hole on Odysee. My time online would probably be lower since I’d probably just try to spend more time watching things I’ve torrented. That, and probably free up more time for me to actually try and learn guitar.
If no US based services in general ( bank not included because that seems a little ridiculous IMO ), I’d end up probably missing out on a lot of stuff here on Lemmy and Mastodon, presuming one of the people I follow is on an American instance ( wetdry(dot)world ). That, and no more ways of seeing my favorite artist Panda Paco’s work officially, at least as far as I know. But hey, maybe I’d have more time to devote to writing more fanfiction on Wattpad.
Straight back to ebaumsworld and geocities
