The Medium Is The Message
related to marshall mcluhans - we shape the communication tool, then it shapes us
sari and
The Medium Is The Message
the best software products aren’t just assemblages of functionality ,exposed by particular formal elements (links, buttons, icons, menus). Rather, they organize and shape how you think, and they create or sustain a particular lifestyle
Celine Nguyen • research as leisure activity
Digital affordances seem to often constitute what Marshall McLuhan would call ‘hot media’ (1967), which require little active participation on the part of the audience, and are of highly predictable nature. Rosa would insist that to achieve resonance, we would want to cool media down to encourage active participation – a prerequisite for resonant... See more
Vikram • Resonance Theory: How Can Connection Create Disconnection?
Similarly, I think people need to ask themselves – and it might be easier if we ask each other – What do you really want to be doing? How did you fall in love in the first place? People start optimizing for things like “hm, if I did this I would get 5% more traffic” or “I would get to the next follower milestone” I think because it’s visible, and... See more
Anna Dorothea Ker • "People First" - Making Tech Work for You
Visakan on putting the goal first. What do you really want to be doing? Why? With Whom? ? How? The tools are just scaffolding, support structures, facilitators. What specific outcomes do you actually want?
McLuhan argued that, pushed to its limits, a medium flips or reverses its characteristics.
Internet scale pushes information into disinformation, connection into loneliness, and desire into apathy.
LM Sacasasx.comLooking around, it’s easy to be disheartened about people and the state of the world, but on Reddit I have experienced the opposite: people naturally create community, and they are smarter, funnier, and more helpful and caring than I think we often give them credit for.
And this is not because our users are some special subset of humanity. They’re... See more
And this is not because our users are some special subset of humanity. They’re... See more
KG • Anthology #1: Reddit
incentives are everything, and Reddit doesn’t reward self-promoters
phone calls are more intimate - voice in ear is literally closer than a video screen - video reminds you that you are ~not~ in same space + visual distraction of seeing yourself
There is a whole lot of goodness out there when the right systems are in place.
The largest companies today are obsessed with generating content in a completely de-ritualized context. But content always exists in tension with form. Ritual is the form we have abandoned in our relentless quest for content.
Ted Gioia • 13 Observations on Ritual
addictive scrolling and swiping can never achieve the sense of closure and boundedness we all crave.
It could be said that the success of our human future requires the pursuit of narrative, reflection and empathy. To be sure, we can move in that direction through education, civic discourse and therapy. But if the design of our digital technologies helped us get to where we are, then design can also help get us somewhere better. Indeed, there are a
... See more