It could stand in contrast to how we imagine 'all knowing' collective life form (i.e. Matrix, Borg, Voldemort and Sauron from lord of the rings films) who are often portrayed as evil and menacing.
It will be complicated, and beyond our comprehension, for a machine to track us so effectively, but we have created tools, like the #HashTag that enable anyone to know when anyone expresses anything in a particular way.
And it doesn't feel like pure evil to me. It is not like just because of twitter's 'Trends' my experience there is governed by the majority. However, because I have that information available I can potentially see what is very popular at the moment. Moreover, I know that I can do this, and that makes me feel like part of something, which makes me feel comfortable and included.
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| I have never used this feature of twitter, but one day maybe it will become relevant to me. So I am happy it is there. |
Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but take those freedoms away from me, and even if I find it interesting, chances are that to a lot of others this will be boring, and the positive incentive for participation can be lost.
So being a part of a group can make you feel like you have power, just like everyone else. Just because you do not write the code or have administrative permissions, doesn't make you a powerless user. You could even argue that those with that power trade off some of their freedom to say whatever they wish because they are under growing scrutiny by you and everyone else. Simply being the party which does the majority of the work in the background, creating the platform (the 'queens'), doesn't mean you have more say in how the group acts. Remember that the group contains millions of users, their collective intelligent is vast, but it is not necessarily in the hands of the admins to guide based on their whims. With Such intelligence, the group should be able to spot when the queen is doing something which is against the group's best interest, and render her action meaningless or make her stop.
In Star Trek, when the Borg Queen wants something that defies the interest of the drones (Season 6 Ep 26 "Unimatrix Zero"), she must disconnect them from the hive mind. I may be overlooking aspects of the particular storyline, but I like the fact that once we delve into the working of the Borg we discover that the queen is not all powerful, she is in fact an admin. as powerful as any other drone, after a fashion, and helps making up the collective.
It is not the case with the Borg, but realistically all the parts of such crowds could have a positive reasons and incentives to be a part. The scrutiny of that happiness is also a powerful tool in the hands of the crowd. The group can be stronger if individuals truly wish to stay.

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