dreaming of a better internet
sari and
dreaming of a better internet
Search engines — the window into the web for many people — top their results with pages containing thousands of words of auto-generated nothingness, perfectly optimized for search engine prominence and to pull in money via ads and affiliate links while simultaneously devoid of any useful information.
Social networks have become “the web” for many... See more
Social networks have become “the web” for many... See more
vis Molly White
People want to use social media to meet other people—not to win the social analytics game. No one cares how many people you matched with on Tinder. No one cares how many followers you have on Twitter. Did you find love? Did you find sex? Did you find a friend? These are the questions that matter.
Sean Monahan • The Tinderization of the Internet
Being online more than that just feels like a threat to my creativity. A therapist I interviewed recently told me that digital overconsumption interrupts one’s capacity to dream and create; not to mention, studies of phone addiction suggest that spending too much time hunting for new online trends dulls our ability to appreciate novelty in the real... See more
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
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
let's collectively create a less profit-driven internet
Embedded • How Taylor Lorenz Went From Tumblr Queen to Internet Historian
As part of its purpose in slowing news down (hence the name), and taking time to make sense of what’s really going on in the world rather than just react to the immediate, Tortoise’s editorial team hosts weekly online ‘Open News Think-Ins’ at which they discuss the news stories of the week with the subscriber community. They start the conversation
... See moreJon Alexander • Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us
Ultimately you'll have to determine the info-diet that works for you. But if you insist on endlessly consuming whatever the web serves you, know that this banquet culminates in a bitter dessert: at the end of your life, when you're weighing your regrets, you probably won’t say “Man, I wish I’d spent more time browsing the web.”
gurwinder.substack.com • The Intellectual Obesity Crisis
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