how to survive being chronically online
It’s been endlessly argued that algorithms influence too much of what we watch, listen to, read, and even think. Personal taste erodes while decision-making is outsourced to the platform.
Beware the Curators
The collection of so much personalized data—around what time of day we turn to Sade or how many seconds of a NewJeans song we play—suggests a future without risk, one in which we will never be exposed to anything we may not want to hear.
Or that we may not want to see.
When I feel unsettled, it’s usually because I haven’t sat down to write in a while.
Unsettled is a good word to describe the weirdness of modern life, and I think one of the main reasons many of us feel unsettled is because no one feels like they’re getting much done. Which isn’t surprising when you consider that people are spending upwards of 6 hou... See more
Unsettled is a good word to describe the weirdness of modern life, and I think one of the main reasons many of us feel unsettled is because no one feels like they’re getting much done. Which isn’t surprising when you consider that people are spending upwards of 6 hou... See more
Sari Azout • Make Something to Learn More About What's Inside You
If the spaces we imagine to facilitate reconnection with the self also banish the factors that determine who we are — the wider cultural dimensions of the worlds we belong to — then we are condemned to either living falsely, or being alone. Both concepts collapse when one acknowledges that, no matter how far off-grid one travels, there is no place,... See more
Lauren Collee • The Great Offline — Real Life
The anxiety isn't determined by the presence or absence of code. It comes from a lack of transparency and control. You are susceptible whether or not TikTok exists, whether or not you delete it. Logging off is one tool, but it will not alone cure you.
Are.na • So You Want to Escape the Algorithm
Social media is no longer meant for connecting with friends; it is designed almost entirely to facilitate the following of brands and the monetizing of personalities.
Kyle Chayka - The Desperation of the Instagram Photo Dump
The hyperlink, in this sense, is the building block of the modern internet.
To feel creatively and intellectually alive, you have to stop mindlessly consuming the Internet and start mindfully curating it.
Nonchalance achieved chalantly is nothing new, but the way it is being encouraged on social media today reflects increasing structural limitations to life online.
Kyle Chayka - The Desperation of the Instagram Photo Dump