Social Media
Essays and more on social media
Packy McCormick and
Social Media
As late as 2011, journalists and technologists were praising social media’s emancipatory power in light of the role of Facebook and Twitter in the Arab Spring revolts. But, as has been noted many times, after the U.S. presidential election in 2016, such optimism increasingly appeared naïve and misguided. Now Facebook and Twitter are seen as... See more
L. M. Sacasas • The Analog City and the Digital City
fuel to the fire
we’ve turned everything in life into a giant popularity contest–everything you say, everything you experience, everything you see, and even everything you feel–is a product of a giant worldwide counter of likes and follows. It’s a planet-wide exercise in objective convergence, a giant narcissism amplifier that cynically assumes that competing for... See more
About
One of the most insidious effects of algorithmic curation is its redefinition of success. In the pre-digital age, greatness was measured by critical acclaim, cultural impact, or historical longevity. Today, it is measured by metrics: views, likes, shares, and subscriptions.
This shift has profound implications for creators. To succeed in an... See more
This shift has profound implications for creators. To succeed in an... See more
Dr. Felix S. Grenwood • Algorithms of Mediocrity — william
We’ve grown so used to the idea that social media is damaging our democracies that we’ve thought very little about how we might build new networks to strengthen societies. We need a wave of innovation around imagining and building tools whose goal is not to capture our attention as consumers, but to connect and inform us as citizens.
Ethan Zuckerman • Building a More Honest Internet - Columbia Journalism Review
All social networking apps fall on a spectrum from love to fame.
Li Jin • Love vs. fame: A framework for social applications
Li Jin’s observations on how social media apps/networks fall on a spectrum of love vs. fame
Packy McCormick and
Facebook inflated its video metrics, a bunch of digital media executives carelessly pivoted to video in the hopes that they would become essential content suppliers to Mark Zuckerberg, and then he imperiously killed them all because he realized it was far easier to negotiate with an infinite supply of individual burned-out Instagram influencers.... See more