Las apuestas online como formas inquietantes de camaradería
Dejo acá una perturbadora reflexión de Ruby Thelot a propósito de su nuevo libro In Defense of Being-On-line.
I spent some time studying groups of young men who were trading meme coins in 2020 to 2024. This was a similar kind of activity; it is mostly gambling. What I discovered was that oftentimes the activity of gambling was not an individual activity. It tended to be in these group chats, lovingly called “the trenches,” in which you and your boys exchanged information and traded together. And not only that, you lose together.
When I think about the male loneliness epidemic, this was a rather twisted but interesting novel form of male bonding. With prediction markets, I think about them not merely as financial instruments, but also as a tool for participation. Consumers no longer want to just purely consume, they want to participate in culture.