internet culture

Digital platforms are largely devoted to making users consume more, faster—think of TikTok’s frenetic “For You” feed or Spotify’s automated playlists. Curators slow down the unending scroll and provide their followers with a way of savoring culture, rather than just inhaling it, developing a sense of appreciation.

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

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

I use technology in order to hate it more properly. –Nam June Paik https://t.co/8lJQifwyqD

“the internet is full of smart people writing beautiful prose about how bad everything is... i find this confusing and tragic, like watching Olympic high-jumpers catapult themselves into a pit of tarantulas.”

i have also been thinking about how all the timeless classics do not do this. my heroes do not do this, at least not in their heroic works.

why... See more