The internet's "town square" is dead
Innovating within an existing platform is always a challenge, because as media theorist Marshall McLuhan argued decades ago, ‘the medium is the message’. TikTok and Twitter/X have short-form content built into the design of the platform, which prevents depth. As I explore in The Bigger Picture, this also leads to what philosopher C. Thi Nguyen call... See more
Alexander Beiner • Myth and Metrics: How Social Media Robs Us of Ritual, and How to Revive It
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 consu... 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 consu... See more
DEV Palinode
