the techno-social environment
Narratives seek closure (the story must end). The Database is open-ended (it assimilates new data indefinitely). The Database resists the Narrative impulse to control and stabilize meaning.
L. M. Sacasas • Narrative Collapse
The more benefits a network provides, the more it enslaves its users.
Three factors keep us on a given platform: its monopolistic aptitude, its habit-forming design, and the fact that users can earn a return on their investment only on the platform they’re invested in. Much like a genie enslaved to his lamp, users cannot escape these magical apps.
Three factors keep us on a given platform: its monopolistic aptitude, its habit-forming design, and the fact that users can earn a return on their investment only on the platform they’re invested in. Much like a genie enslaved to his lamp, users cannot escape these magical apps.
Andrey Mir • The platform paradox
The constant scrolling tells us that nothing is worth remembering, nothing is worth reflection, nothing is worth production because the act of consumption is simpler.
Kyla Scanlon • Gen Z and Financial Nihilism
The worlds we now inhabit are digitized realms incapable by their nature and design of generating a broadly shared experience of reality.
L. M. Sacasas • From Common Sense to Bespoke Realities
The overall digital environment is dictated by tech companies with ruthlessly capitalist, expansionary motives, which do not provide the most fertile ground for culture. While the magazine fashion editor may periodically use their ability to pick out and promote a previously unheard voice, the algorithmic feed never will; it can only iterate on est
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
... See moreAlgorithms shape the flow of information and influence the narratives that users encounter. By tailoring content based on user preferences and engagement patterns, they not only reinforce existing beliefs but nudge users in sometimes terrifying directions. This selective exposure to information can reinforce biases and shape users' perceptions in w
This majority illusion can trick you into believing that a minority opinion is the dominant consensus point of view overall when it’s really the viewpoint of the loudest or best connected members of a community.
Invisible Rulers
The timeline is no longer a source of information or social presence, but more of a mood-regulation device, endlessly replenishing itself with just enough novelty to suppress the anxiety of stopping. Scrolling has become a form of ambient dissociation, half-conscious, half-compulsive, closer to scratching an itch than seeking anything in particular... See more