Obsessions: The Pervasive Now

DOPAMINE CULTURE The unstoppable speed of meme culture / language: Slang example, relatability fatigue, micro-nostalgias Reevesy dopamine culture map NIHILISTIC FUTURE Not planning ahead due to pessimism about the future Climate anxiety becoming climate despair in 2024 Not having kids FORGETTING

by Andrew Reeves · updated 14d ago

It’s been endlessly argued that algorithms influence too much of what we watch, listen to, read, and even think. Personal taste erodes while decision-making is outsourced to the platform. This globalization, platform persuasion, and general apathy has spilled over into all types of homogenization: the look of our coffee shops, cars, architecture, l
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Andrew Reeves added 14d ago
You could say the same thing is happening on a much larger scale in our culture. There’s a multitude of familiar factors pushing us all into different histories, from misinformation to identity politics, and as a country, there is less and less of a singular timeline that the majority of us can agree on. But a second, and perhaps more important,... See more
Andrew Reeves added 1mo ago
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture a book by Kyle Chayka
bookshop.org
Andrew Reeves added 2mo ago
A Time We Never Knew
by Freya India
afterbabel.com
6 highlights
Andrew Reeves added 2mo ago
Andrew Reeves added 2mo ago
tiktok.com
Andrew Reeves added 3mo ago
NOSTR - decentralised social media
Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it.” But you can also swap “climate change” out for anything really — bird flu, cicadas, political extremism, AI-powered drone strikes, Stanley cup riots at Target. Everything that happe
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Andrew Reeves added 3mo ago
Oh and lastly, as for Skibidi; of course a meme that doesn’t make sense represents a generation who’s growing up in a world which doesn’t make sense. How fitting and somehow unsurprising.
https://zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/julia-dixon?r=1fmre&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Andrew Reeves added 3mo ago
Andrew Reeves added 3mo ago
“Sludge” videos are characterized by the simultaneous playing of multiple clips at once — Family Guy, ASMR slime, and Subway Surfer are some of the most common.
It’s worth calling out the utility of this sludge. The purpose is to offer a more pleasing, dopamine-heavy augmentation to the original content. It’s a sugarcoat to make the “bland” go down.
My overarching thesis is that we are at the early stages of a multi-decade super-cycle of retail empowerment driven by the fact that “consumption, culture and community” are now tradeable assets. Consumption is no longer ephemeral, but persistent. No longer private, but communal. No longer limitless, but scarce. Consumption is, for the first time, ... See more
from Thoughts at the Intersection of Web3 and Creative Culture by Richard Kim
Andrew Reeves added 3mo ago

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture a book by Kyle Chayka

A Time We Never Knew

from Thoughts at the Intersection of Web3 and Creative Culture by Richard Kim