dreaming of a better internet
sari and
dreaming of a better internet
A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the majority of respondents would prefer to live in a world where TikTok and Instagram did not exist!
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
As late as 2011, journalists and technologists were praising social media’s emancipatory power in light of the role of Facebook and Twitter in the Arab Spring revolts. But, as has been noted many times, after the U.S. presidential election in 2016, such optimism increasingly appeared naïve and misguided. Now Facebook and Twitter are seen as... See more
L. M. Sacasas • The Analog City and the Digital City
fuel to the fire
my goal is simply to create a space to wander around
Morgan Harper Nichols • A Necessary Imagination
Playful software often conjures up video games, but I don't mean that. Where I see the lack of play is in consumer software: design tools, social networks, dating apps, messengers. Borrowing from Brian Upton's The Aesthetics of Play , I'm talking about play that isn't segregated from ordinary life, “[play that's] embedded within ordinary life;... See more
XH • Internet Playgrounds
Somewhere Good
somewheregood.com
self-hosted networks like Mastodon are an alternative that more people than ever before have experienced. There is more awareness that running these servers and instances in a way which meets the minimum bar of reasonableness costs time and money. And not an insignificant amount. These small communities that are safe, welcoming and adaptive require
... See moreDan Hon • S16e08: Free-Range, Organic, and Natural; The Original Promise
people still carve out community in the most hostile of places and subvert platforms to create space for human-first desires. We create solidarity infrastructure out of text chains, subvert government control through form submissions, and carve intimate sanctuaries in the comment sections and profiles of algorithmically controlled wastelands. We... See more