lel I worked on a couple speech interface projects back in the 00s before all these corporate spyware platforms emerged. Naturally, it was all on-device (or a local server we controlled). This was more R&D/prototype stuff so it wasn't as robust as systems nowadays, but the software is still out there:
Enshittification refers not just to making things crappier, but to a process in which different people benefit. iirc:
first the customer gets a lot of value and the platform loses money (bc the service is building a customer base)
then the vendors get a lot of value bc the platform privileges them (this is most obvious with amazon - maybe less on social media platforms but maybe that'd be third parties that work on that plaform?)
then the shareholders get a lot of value bc the platform squeezes every single possible penny out of the customer and the vendors.
Most major social media platforms are very far into the enshittification process, so yes they do not provide a very "social" environment to the customer. They control the feed so you can't just follow your friends, they force you to watch ads, they have ever-strict requirements to participate (one or more of: you can't just observe you have to create an account, you can't use VPNs, you must enter an email address, you must enter a phone number, you must enter a credit card, ...) etc.
The solution is either:
look for a platform that is early in the enshittification cycle (like those who went from Twitter to Bluesky) or
find a platform whose goal is to resist enshittification (like those who went from Twitter to Mastodon.)
Nowadays, yeah, it just means anyone who dresses "dark" regardless of what kind of music they like or scene they hang out in. Which I think is cool, wtf, the music is still there if people want to listen to it: !gothindustrial@lemmy.world
the Goths that challenged Rome
I think the joke relies on "goth" as in "gothic fiction"
The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance-era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative term meaning medieval and barbaric, which itself originated from Gothic architecture and in turn the Goths.
So there's only really a tenuous link to medieval history, let alone goth in the musical or aesthetic sense. The joke would make a lot more sense if the kid was into the Society of Creative Anachronism and Historical European Martial Arts, but I suspect not enough people know about those.
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