Saved by Laura Bernier and
The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste
With information flooding in from near and far, people were falling victim to “present-mindedness.” They were so busy consuming new information that they had no time to step back and view the information in a broad historical and cultural context. Overwhelmed by immediate concerns and diversions, they shunned the hard, slow work of interpretation.
Nicholas Carr • The Tyranny of Now
It's amusing to reflect that at an earlier stage in the history of the web, information overload was widely held to be a temporary issue.
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
The internet was dramatically increasing our ability to know about things, while our ability to change things stayed the same, or possibly shrank right in front of us.
Jia Tolentino • Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
Today, many of us take such vast assortments for granted, until we pause to consider how inconceivable it was 20 years ago that anyone with an internet connection would one day be able to, say, stream a Turkish soap opera or learn how to cook a vegan dish from Zimbabwe. So Anderson was right about the cultural impact of the Long Tail, though he som... See more
Marina Krakovsky • What Everyone Got Wrong About ‘the Long Tail’
The Great Diminishment has several causes. (The internet, social media, apathy, etc., all play a role. I’ve written more about how “everyone is numbing out.”) But a big cause is what I’ll call the “venture capitalization” of culture, where as much cost is squeezed out of every nook and cranny as possible, while prices remain the same or higher. You... See more
Catherine Shannon • The Great Diminishment
