✖ Deplatform yourself: how to leave Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp
And: Tipping comes to Clubhouse; AEG & Live Nation bring back furloughed staff; Audio glasses trending; what if YouTube was paywalled?; why legal Napster failed
After leaving Facebook a few years ago, I’m finally deleting my Instagram and WhatsApp later this month, too.
I have a strategy and wrote a guide. Here are the steps:
Start building value in places other than Facebook Inc.
Limit the data you give to Facebook Inc.
Deactivate your Facebook Inc. accounts for short periods of time.
Download your data from Facebook Inc.
Make sure you stay in touch with the people you value.
Delete your Facebook Inc. accounts.
More information and resources in the article. I highly recommend decreasing reliance on the social media monopolist. How to do that is described in step 1.
TECH
👋 Clubhouse is introducing in-app tipping.
🐱 Napster failed when it originally pivoted to legal streaming in 2005. Napster created the conditions that led to the iPod's success, which a legal Napster then couldn't compete with.
🕶 As it’s getting sunnier, it might be worth taking a look at a trend that finally seems to be taking off: “audio glasses”. Wearables that have Bluetooth connected headpones in the temple part of the frame.
🎟 What if YouTube placed 90% of its most popular content behind a paywall?
⛓ It’s early days for NFTs. I was initially excited about it having become viable to auction virtual goods now (outside of gaming contexts), but there are problems that need to be addressed:
“All common NFT platforms today share some of these weaknesses. They still depend on one company staying in business to verify your art. They still depend on the old-fashioned pre-blockchain internet, where an artwork would suddenly vanish if someone forgot to renew a domain name.”
CORONA
🌓 XR consultant Anne McKinnon has written a detailed review of her experience with Dream, a virtual live performance inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Interesting experience, with performers (wearing full-body motion capture suits) plugged into VR and experiencing the virtual world they’re performing in live, together with the audience. (frequent readers may recall Maarten’s write-up about Dream in February).
🖥 Bandsintown survey: 31% have streamed seven livestreams or more. 62% have paid for a livestream, while 55% say they will continue watching even when physical concerts return.
💼 AEG & Live Nation are steadily bringing back furloughed workers.
😷 The UK government has announced a series of pilot events in April and May to bring back audiences.
🗺 Branding expert Martin Lindstrom on how the pandemic has fundamentally changed us:
“Now it’s as if an entire generation, those currently in their 20s and 30s, have hopped into a time capsule, fast-forwarding their age by 30 years. Like 60-year-olds, they’ve acquired a desperate need to experience the world before it’s too late.”
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