QuoteThe utopia didn't last long. Early tech enthusiasts quickly realized how to monetize this collective consciousness by developing search engines, algorithms and collecting data.
"We see this in the ideology of early Facebook. The intention was very much like: 'Let me grab all of this data without permission and use it to build something that I can monetize'," says Mejias.
"We've moved from an age of connection to an age of extraction," Turner adds. "Digital media have become mining industries. We are now like oil or coal — embedded in a social ground that corporations extract from and sell back to us as products and advertising."
https://www.dw.com/en/the-internet-was-supposed-to-be-free-what-went-wrong/a-75213121
De-Communisting and applying Crowdism: this is what the herd wanted, a managed experience where Karen can demand to talk to the manager if someone says something that hurts her feelings.