internet culture
“The fast shall inherit the earth.” This was previously printed in the Facebook internal book they’d give new employees. Now we can read it as “the fast will catch Elon’s attention, which will influence an army of fans to mimetically adopt the message.” Unfortunately that’s not as catchy.
Reggie James • Political Expectations
Instead of withdrawing, I encourage my students to dive deeper, engaging with platforms as if they were close reading a work of literature. In doing so, I believe that we can not only better understand a platform's ideological premises, but also the inevitable cracks in a rigid software logic that enables the surprising, delightful messiness of... See more
So you want to escape the algorithm

This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest.
In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
This very email is an example of this. This theory is being shared on a private channel sent to 500 people who I... See more
In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
This very email is an example of this. This theory is being shared on a private channel sent to 500 people who I... See more
Yancey Strickler • The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

Agentic software designs for and explicitly allows user-made desire paths and folk-usages of software. People will use software in whatever informal, distributed ways that emerge from real world contexts. Folksonomies are a great example of these informal taxonomies developed by users on social sharing platforms. Tumblr tags, for example, have... See more
Agentic Computing
Flattened, algorithmically-driven, risk-averse, accounting-based reboot culture continues to win despite the incredible diversity and eagerness of the creator economy and its long tail of choice and representation.
But despite a firehouse of hot takes, nothing much has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s gotten worse ?
In 2024, all of the Top 15... See more
But despite a firehouse of hot takes, nothing much has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s gotten worse ?
In 2024, all of the Top 15... See more
Cultural Singularity & The Need for Friction: The Business Case for Thinking the Inverse
Jeff Weinstein, Stripe - Conversations on Quality (Episode 03)
youtube.comLulu Cheng Meservey had a good take on X: the Zuck glow-up is now so overdone that it seems artificial, manufactured, inauthentic. Going on Joe Rogan last week may have been the final straw.
We can already see a backlash brewing on TikTok, accelerating by Meta rolling back moderation and by the TikTok ban being viewed as Zuckerberg puppeteering.... See more
We can already see a backlash brewing on TikTok, accelerating by Meta rolling back moderation and by the TikTok ban being viewed as Zuckerberg puppeteering.... See more