• Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    Does social media create a physical product? Remember, computers need engineers to repair them and electricians to keep the power on. Physical infrastructure.

    May I ask what your age range is, and what you do for a living, as well as how much income you make?

    • Narauko@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      By that metric do authors or poets or actors create a physical product? Do computer programers? Since the death of physical media, books and art are now far more frequently digital than paper or canvas. Applications and software is 100% digital. Newspapers are dead, so journalists don’t create a physical product. Is your argument that only physical labor producing physical things is “real” work?

      • Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca
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        12 hours ago

        No, there is value in artistic expression and other intangibles. Our ideas are what give the tangibles scope.

        What I AM saying is that people seem to think that social media influencers are more important than farmers or gas station attendants or grocers. No they are not. Most aren’t creating anything more than a hobby level. That’s okay if that’s what you want to do with your time, just don’t expect sympathy from those who feed you, keep your lights on, and ensure the comfort of all.

        • Zorque@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Why won’t you feel sympathy for someone who’s hurting? Why do you feel that someone needs to fall into a very narrow category to be “worth your time”?

          Just because someone doesn’t fall into your narrow view of what’s worthwhile doesn’t mean they’re not worth basic human compassion.

          • Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca
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            12 hours ago

            Of course they are worth compassion. I just don’t understand their desire to be the center of attention, when all the acclaim of the crowd doesn’t truly bring individual satisfaction.

            Fame is fickle and not worth chasing. Achilles found that out the hard way.

            • Zorque@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              I just don’t understand their desire to be the center of attention

              There is that aspect of it, but there’s also the aspect of writing your own destiny, about creating something you care about instead of just being a nameless cog in an industrial machine putting out consumerist crap day in and day out. Why is the latter more admirable to you than the former?

        • Narauko@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          It doesn’t come across as you appreciating value in artistic expression and other intangibles when you say “suck it up and get a real job”. That may not have been your intention, but it can definitely be read that way. I think that is the “boomer” people have commented on.

          I don’t think there are really that many people who think social media creators or better than farmers or essential services personnel, and those that do are completely out of touch, but there are plenty of people who see alternative media creators as less than any other job. I personally think A-list actors, celebrities and sports professionals are no better than grocery store worker or warehouse person, but I won’t deny they work just as hard in different ways.

          • Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca
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            8 hours ago

            My point is that no matter what, if you have success at something, there’s going to be blood, sweat and tears involved. Sisyphus doesn’t complain about his boulder for cheating Death, why should they? It’s pointless.

    • Zorque@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Just keeping up with the boomer takes…

      Something doesn’t need to be a physical product to hold tangible value.

      • Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca
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        12 hours ago

        Where did I say that social media creates no value whatsoever? I’m just saying that without those who work in physical reality, creating tangibles with tangible things, make the mental edifices possible.

        Also, you didn’t choose to share your profession with us. It makes me think that you’re attempting to create a social media presence of your own. Trust me, it’s pointless. I had a facebook fan page with 150-175 people on it. All foolish vanity, nothing more.

        To win the acclaim of the mob is what the worst of us amongst human beings do. Do you want to be a politician in terms of expression?

        • Zorque@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Also, you didn’t choose to share your profession with us. It makes me think that you’re attempting to create a social media presence of your own.

          Either that or I don’t think value is only subjective to what you do for a living. That my opinion is somehow less valuable because I don’t fall into a specific field you perceive as valuable.

          I’m just saying that without those who work in physical reality, creating tangibles with tangible things, make the mental edifices possible.

          And often those non-tangible things help to give those who make the tangible things the willpower to go on. It’s not a one way street, where value is only created by those who create tangible goods and stolen by the intangible. That’s a very pessimistic, if not “holier-than-thou” perspective. As though anyone who doesn’t do what you respect isn’t worth as much as someone who does.

          Like I said, a very boomer attitude.