internet
As the internet evolves, especially for us “very online people,” there’s a deepening sense that we are, together, becoming something beyond the scope of our original intentions. We are rapidly approaching a sum far greater and more mysterious than what we often perceive as its cold, mechanistic parts.
Dan Hunt • Internet as Practice
Tanuj and
Jay Matthews and
Two things are true. First, the Internet has led to decentralization like never before. People like myself can spin up a website and a newsletter, and bypass the approval of gatekeepers. But at the same time, pop culture is more centralized than ever. From movies to music, books to video games, the most popular content garners more attention than ever. Take movies. Before the year 2000, only 25% of top-grossing movies were prequels, sequels, spinoffs, remakes, reboots, or cinematic universe expansions. By 2010, that number had climbed to 50%. Now, it’s close to 100%. The gravity of the Internet leads to centralization, but savvy media consumers can learn from a wider variety of voices than at any other point in human history
At the end of the day, people use the internet to find what they want. A queer teenager feeling isolated in the Midwest can use it to find solace and community. But a bigot can also use it to find all the “research” and “facts” he needs to bolster an opinion that was never going to be changed anyway.
Jenny Odell • How to Internet
Doppelgänger is window into our collective selves and the machines we’ve built that so easily and efficiently sort us into groups of “us” and “them.” Typically, these kinds of books play a nifty trick on the reader. The subjects, the people we call them , are easily rendered as others, leaving the reader feeling terrified, superior, smug—or all... See more
Michael Estrin • Bad Doppelgänger Vibes
