failings of the modern internet
... 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
We live in an aggressive media environment. Everything we see advertises for our attention. Information is constantly pushed onto us.
As the torrent increases, it devalues more and more information that comes our way. All social media is advertising. Even my posts are essentially ads for my work and point of view. Newsletters have become overwhelmi... See more
As the torrent increases, it devalues more and more information that comes our way. All social media is advertising. Even my posts are essentially ads for my work and point of view. Newsletters have become overwhelmi... See more
What if you gave yourself the gift of inner acceptance?
Things that aren’t disposable have started to feel like they are.
The omnipresent do-anything button of AI is certainly tempting. And companies including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are encouraging such behavior while hoping to prove out their investment in AI tools.
If you use AI to write me that note, don’t expect me to read it
On TikTok or Instagram, you don’t truly control your relationship with the people who care about your work: the platforms do. They can take away those audiences at any time, or change something in the algorithm that prevents you from reaching them, or put things in front of them that you would never want them to see. Those places are great for find... See more
What is so insulting to me about those AI-written messages is that they take less time and consideration to produce than they do to consume. You are, by the nature of sharing these automated words, signaling to me that you care less about my time and attention than you do your own. Of course you’re free to believe that as much as you like—in your o... See more
If you use AI to write me that note, don’t expect me to read it
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
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 pe... See more
Social networks have become “the web” for many pe... See more
But for me, for now, the friction is what I’m looking for. I am grateful — genuinely — for what Google and Apple and others did to make digital life easy over the past two decades. But too much ease carries a cost. I was lulled into the belief that I didn’t have to make decisions. Now my digital life is a series of monuments to the cost of combinin... See more
Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.
convenience has created a culture of passivity. Where’s the intention behind things?
Escape: the perks of being unavailable
this is what we need when the Internet has forced us to become 24/7 accessible