the techno-social environment
The New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas Letter
theideasletter.org
Digital technology is capitalism in hyperdrive, injecting its logic of consumption and promotion, of monetization and efficiency, into every waking minute. - Franzen
the multi-personal nature of our digital presence. We are forced to be digital multi-persons by the niche design of the platforms, as they seek to extract more of our data and attention by making us exercise the various forms of self-representation.
Andrey Mir • The platform paradox
self-representations in order to co-produce the digital mirror-world.
We are entering the post-information age. The barrier is no longer knowledge. It’s intention, self-regulation, and courage.
Sari Azout • Figuring it out, again and again
Bits of information provide neither meaning nor orientation. They do not congeal into a narrative. They are purely additive. From a certain point onwards, they no longer inform — they deform. They can even darken the world. This puts them in opposition to truth. Truth illuminates the world, while information lives off the attraction of surprise,... See more
NOEMA • All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
So a medium is a human innovation which enhances, amplifies, extends some human sense or function, as a cup amplifies our ability to drink water or liquid; a telephone, our ability to speak with someone. In turn, this creates a new medium or new human environment for us with new ‘services and disservices’ or affordances and consequences. It makes... See more
3 Reversal
From, The Master Switch. Mid-century TV networks were probably the most powerful, centralized information system in history.
... See moreThe influencer's primary job is to grow an audience, a crowd of followers who will serve as eyeballs on the content as well as secondary distribution machine. Reach significantly determines to what extent the influencer makes money or accrues power, so the temptation to pepper content with the kind of bait that the algorithms will boost to a niche
The collective perspectives that emerge from social media - our understanding of what the public is and wants - are similarly shaped by algorithms that select on some aspects of the public, while sidelining others. And we tend to orient ourselves towards that understanding, through a mixture of reflective beliefs, conformity with shibboleths, and... See more