dreaming of a better internet
sari and
dreaming of a better internet
The Internet's recency bias is bad for humanity. Our social media feeds prioritize recency over quality, which robs us of wisdom and makes us obsessed with the news.
How to improve the Internet:
David Perelltwitter.cominstead of seeking to maximize status — which some of us still do — more of us find ourselves seeking safety and context online instead.
Yancey Strickler • The Dark Forest and the Post-Individual
the next era of the Internet
“The internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and then to an algorithmic reality. In this reality, the primary task of these platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as much revenue as possible from human vanity, avarice, and narcissism.”
Quick Links for Wednesday, January 3
slapping the table, easy way to put it about the current state of the internet
“The infoverse may be infinite, but our allotment of days is not.” We ought to be conscious of how far and how quickly we move through the internet. But without a physical way to observe our time spent online, we risk scrolling, skimming, and hyperlinking ourselves to oblivion.
Jon Gacnik • On observing time /╲/╲/╲
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
a little easter egg. if you find this card, here’s your free digital version of Sublime’s first zine:
Can you Imagine? A library of possibilities for reimagining the Internet
Above all, people need agency. They need to feel in control. Sometimes, that means designing for subversive behavior. I mean, isn't the most fun often had when you're breaking rules? But this is enormously difficult in software, where you must design almost everythingfrom scratch. Unlike life, you don't get a common repertoire of actions for free –... See more
XH • Internet Playgrounds
When facts are few, persuading the ignorant is relatively easy. But information abundance, already characteristic of early modern societies, engenders a degree of skepticism: The more there is to know, the more likely we feel that truth is elusive. Information super-abundance, or the condition of “digital plenitude,” as media scholar Jay David... See more
L. M. Sacasas • The Analog City and the Digital City
what Antibionic.io is struggling with as I build it.
The first thing I’ve come to learn is that pursuing something as open-ended as internet reform requires intentional scoping and goal-setting. The New Internet was never a single thing. It was fractured and messily connected from the jump. This messiness was used as feedstock to accelerate its consolidation under what became the crypto industry. It... See more