Yeah but this also results in the site receiving less money from ads, also hurting them in the long run. Really the solution is to pay for the services you enjoy, and acknowledge the age-old “if the service is free, you are the product”.
Memes aside I really appreciate posts like this. It’s fascinating to see all the little technical work that goes into things like that.
Sure, but I wouldn’t really find the process of starting the conversation to find that out “small talk”. Even if there’s not a lot new most of the time, to me small talk has to be the kind of banal and meaningless conversations that basically never lead into those ‘real’ ones. How’s the weather, what about that local sports team, did you see someone bought that house/building/store down the road, etc.
I think the complicated thing is there are people you don’t really know, acquaintances, where the generic “how’s the wife and kids” is small talk, because they don’t actually really care, it’s just a generic greeting thing. But a friend asking that is different, imo.
Talking to a friend you haven’t seen in a while about what’s new in your life is basically the opposite of "small talk’. I can empathize with those kind of social interactions being hard for some people, but it’s a social skill that’s worth either practicing or finding alternative paths to accomplish if you want to make and keep friends.
No the usual ‘argument’ that references is that it you have a complaint or preference or comment or whatever about your work or job duties, you have to bring it to your union rep, rather than talk directly with your employers management. Somehow that’s supposed to be an argument against unions.