The internet's "town square" is dead
social-media platforms now create this real distance, in part by being text-heavy. And that distance can lead you to say things or do things you’d never do in the physical world. It also lowers the bar for engagement, which means that firing off a shitty tweet is easy and people do it without thinking. But there’s so much engagement and visibility... See more
The Atlantic • Lessons From 19 Years in the Metaverse
The Death of Meaning
The idea that Big Tech might create platforms supportive of thoughtful human interaction and critical thought is a utopian daydream. Dependent on reifying isolation and polarization, most platforms favor capturing attention, locking users into vapid scrolling or ‘liking,’ transforming the human being into a commodity that... See more
The idea that Big Tech might create platforms supportive of thoughtful human interaction and critical thought is a utopian daydream. Dependent on reifying isolation and polarization, most platforms favor capturing attention, locking users into vapid scrolling or ‘liking,’ transforming the human being into a commodity that... See more
DEV Palinode
Ask a TikTok megafan, someone who’s totally unapologetic and proud about their love of the service: what’s a TikTok that you still come back to, a year later, two years later, three? I think the honest answer is “none.” Because like so many other things in our culture, those videos are designed to be thrown away. They can’t hurt you, but they can’t... See more
The print era tied authority to expertise and institutional backing. Television shifted credibility toward charisma and visual presentation. Social media has rewritten the rules again: trust is no longer about expertise, but about performance. This environment fosters the rise of the TikTok Oracle, where complex cultural critiques are distilled... See more