Matt Klein and Remi Carlioz delivered perhaps the most comprehensive account of this shift in their excellent essay on camouflage culture, a growing movement based on secrecy and exclusivity:

“It’s the dinner party you’re not invited to, Substack paywalls, algo-speak, double meaning emojis, linguistic drift and slang, Chatham House rules,

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We’re not just the product anymore; we’re the labour, the market, and the marketing department. Every element of your individuality is harvested as data to feed an algorithmic ecosystem that has no end, no ground, no ceiling. You give your data, that data is used to design products tailored to your desires, you buy them, and then - because they... See more

A status symbol only functions as a status symbol if others can perceive it. But the moment it becomes perceptible, it ceases to be private. You cannot signal that you’re unreachable without, by definition, being reachable enough to signal it.

Hence, connected privacy.

Meanwhile, Kyle Chayka has observed that having no followers has become its own form of status. It’s here we observe the curdling of resistance into luxury: as invisibility becomes desirable, it becomes a marker of privilege. Those who can afford to opt out, who have offline networks robust enough to sustain them, whose careers don’t depend on... See more

Strategist Nick Susi has argued that big tech’s hegemonic scale is birthing new forms of countercultural expression, with users’ relocating into the web’s “dark forest” - areas hidden from algorithmic extraction.