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!
for nearly fourteen years afterwards, I stared at a smartphone every single day. Five thousand days, all in all. I can’t think of anything else I’ve done with the same level of commitment. There have been days where I’ve had nothing to eat or drink and there have been nights when I didn’t sleep. But until very recently, I never once went... See more
Large parasocial platforms transformed the internet into a hostile and impersonal place. They feed our FOMO to keep us clicking. They exaggerate our differences for "engagement". They create engines for stardom to keep us creeping. They bait us into nutritionless and sensationalist content. Humanity cannot subsist on hype alone.
To reach an internet that cultivates mutual love, we have to move through the hate, pain, and existing preconceptions of what it is for and can be. We have to be able to first imagine, and then, create different possibilities for how technology can bring people together and help us create a better world.
The widespread TikTok-ification of all social apps is quite striking (and sad!) Literally, all apps (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc) have become one click away to an infinite stream of viral videos, playing non-stop.
The ratio of mindless consumption to building something meaningful on computing devices now... See more