Do you remember when people debated about politics, economy or culture in the square or in the cafe? Well that already happened. Now the debate takes place on social networks, where the different currents are grouped to speak, support or reject the different causes in the market of narratives and ideologies.
One example is the Reddit forums, where many retail investors have come together to push trading schemes under the banner of a supposed democratization of finance. In other words, a reddite is one of the good ones, who fights against the establishment. But are they so innocent? Is the platform so innocent? Perhaps not everything is as simple as it seems. Perhaps there are hidden interests, manipulations or deceit behind the speech.
Haven’t you realized that we live in a world of fairy tales? Yes, yes, those where there are good and bad, and nothing more. We, of course, are the good ones, those who defend the noblest and purest values. The others are the bad ones, those who want to hurt us and are envious of us. They are the guilty enemy of all our ills. For example, Reddit is good. Robinhood is good. Wall Street is bad. The government, the bank, the press, the experts, are bad. That easy. But wait, what if I told you that things are not that simple? What if I tell you that some Wall Street companies like Citadel make money off of Robinhood? What if I told you that Reddit makes money in the same way as Google and Meta? The real world is not a fairy tale. It is much more complex and fascinating.
Do you remember those cartoons where in the end the bad guy turned out to be the one you least expected? Well, something like that happens with Reddit. Many consider it the place where the “heroes of history” meet, those who fight for “good and just” causes. Those who face the bad guys. But it turns out that Reddit is not as good as it seems. As it turns out, Reddit also collects and uses your personal data when you use or interact with its services. As it turns out, Reddit is also vulnerable to hacker attacks that can steal and leak your sensitive information. It turns out that Reddit also makes money in the same way as everyone else.. Scooby Doo, where are you?
Have you noticed that there are people who insist on living in a world of fantasies? For them, everything is black or white, good or bad, us or them. My tribe is good, your tribe is bad. The solution to all our problems is for my tribe to prevail over yours.. Simple as that.
For this reason, they blindly follow their favorite Twitter users and their favorite YouTubers, who tell them what they want to hear.. They are geniuses and angels fallen from heaven, who are never wrong or lie. But that Nobel prize winner in economics is an idiot, who knows nothing of reality.
But one day, it is discovered that the tweeter was a fake and the youtuber was making deals under the table with the highest bidder. Apparently, they were not so noble or honest. And now that? Will they continue to believe in fairy tales? Will they be able to accept the complexity of the world or will they take refuge in their bubbles?
Do you know what happens when you see the world in black and white? That you miss all the colors in between. And it turns out that the world is full of colors, shades, diversity. Because here we are all human beings, with our virtues and defects, with our lights and shadows.
But it seems that some prefer to live like in a toxic high school, where there are only popular kids and marginalized kids, where the former bully the latter, and where there is no place for coexistence or respect. And the worst thing is that they take that culture to social networks, where they insult and attack each other mercilessly.
But life is not like that. Neither the friend is so perfect, nor the enemy is so evil. Perhaps if we dared to get to know the other, to listen to him, to understand him, we would realize that we have more things in common than we think. And perhaps in this way we could build a more harmonious and tolerant world.
However, Reddit, the largest internet forum, has suffered a rebellion from its users and moderators due to changes in the prices of its API, which affect third-party applications that use their data. Many subreddits have gone private for two days in protest, causing issues with access to the platform. Reddit CEO S.Teve Huffman, has defended the changes and has said that they are necessary to prevent the abuse of artificial intelligence and generate value for users. He has also asked his employees for calm and has assured that the situation will be resolved soon. However, many users and developers feel cheated and threatened by Reddit’s decision and are demanding more transparency and dialogue.
Huffman has explained that charging for the data from his platform is a necessary business decision, because running a company is very expensive. It doesn’t matter that thousands of users and moderators have protested by shutting down their communities for two days, nor that several third-party applications have announced their closure for not being able to pay the new rates. According to Huffman, those complaining are a noisy and privileged minority, which does not represent the true spirit of Reddit. Furthermore, he says that he is willing to negotiate with developers who want to have productive conversations, as long as they agree to his terms. Huffman is confident that the situation will normalize soon and that Reddit will continue to be the largest forum on the Internet.
Reddit is a social network that allows us to share memes, news, and opinions. But it is also a company that needs to make money. How does he do it? Well, copying the other social networks. What if he spies on us? Of course. What if you sell our data? Of course. It is not a question of falling into cynicism. But, like it or not, you have to live on something. After so much anti-establishment fighting in those forums, today Reddit is getting a taste of its own medicine when users are realizing that they are sleeping with the enemy.
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