failings of the modern internet
We’ve created an acceleration and an explosion of choice, which will permanently leave us feeling fundamentally unsatisfied or under-optimized.
Rory Sutherland • Are We Too Impatient to Be Intelligent?
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the newness fades as the innovations are monetized to death. Any joy in the new forms of expression is ruthlessly exploited, most often in the form of increased advertising. There's something Sisyphean in the whole process. Authentic online cultures are always being ruined, as users inevitably complain, but also always emerging again. No platform i
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we’re going to look back at how we designed the world around computers with the same regret that we look at how we’ve designed cities around cars
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‘Algorithmic’ has become a byword for anything that feels too slick, too reductive, or too optimized for attracting attention: a combination of high production values with little concern for fundamental content.
— Filterworld, pg. 140
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common knowledge is now harder to generate at the level of a nation, and easier to generate at the level of a group. That’s a perilous combination.
The Ruffian, Special Edition: Book Club
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As a kid, gardens and the internet both offered a place to dream, create, and play.
But that was then. Today, the internet is an omnipresent force that organizes the ways we learn, connect, and love—often in ways that are more nefarious than virtuous. The internet is a place, and that place has largely been led by those who value the accumulation of... See more
But that was then. Today, the internet is an omnipresent force that organizes the ways we learn, connect, and love—often in ways that are more nefarious than virtuous. The internet is a place, and that place has largely been led by those who value the accumulation of... See more
On Digital Gardens: Tending to Our Collective Multiplicity
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“ORGANISES”
TikTok is creative and sprawling and often strange and anarchic, which mirrors the internet more broadly. There are few rules; the platform takes all comers. Chaos is inevitable. You can find absolutely anything; it’s incredible to witness how many different ways there are to be, how creative (or uncreative) people are, how we crave attention, hopi... See more
The New Pornographers — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
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... See more"Corrupt personalization is the process by which your attention is drawn to interests that are not your own," Sandvig wrote. The recommendation system "serves a commercial interest that is often at odds with our interests." In the case of Netflix, the misleading images and the omnipresent Fast & Furious suggestions may serve to increase user en
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Agriculture was a tremendous invention – it got people fed and freed them to do many things. But agriculture – taken to the extreme in the pursuit of profit leads to a sick and obese population and industrialized farms with little regard for the environment or animals. And in response to that, we now have amazing artisanal and healthy food choices ... See more
Notes on scale + quality
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most social networks suffer from the weight of objectives
Maven Is a New Social Network That Eliminates Followers—and Hopefully Stress
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