Well, one explanation I liked quite a bit was recently written by Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims, who argued that social media isn’t dying, but changing into broadcast media. The majority of the content we see on a daily basis is now made or shared by a small professional class of users, known as the creator economy. Which is making... See more
On one hand, we have a booming Creator Economy, with an ever-expanding democratization of tools for production to anyone with an idea. So much so, that according to 1,000 surveyed Americans by Zine, 86% of people believe there is an overwhelming amount of entertainment available today.
Yet meanwhile on the other hand, we seem to have also found... See more
The economy of attention doesn’t ask what you think; it asks how fast you can say it, how loud, and how often. And if you play long enough, you stop making anything for the people you care about and you start making it for the feed. The result is a race to the bottom with a leaderboard, a machine that needs to be fed even if it’s chewing up your... See more
I’m no transhumanist or accelerationist, but I am however interested in adaptation and resilience over rejection and denial. We could be a lot happier, healthier and again productive if we allocated a fraction of our time and energy on conditioning ourselves to new environments and ideas, instead of fervently stressing to avoid... See more
In recommendation media, content is not distributed to networks of connected people as the primary means of distribution. Instead, the main mechanism for the distribution of content is through opaque, platform-defined algorithms that favor maximum attention and engagement from consumers. The exact type of attention these recommendations seek is... See more
They showed us a way to connect with others, widen friendships, find others in similar or different communities, and stay on top of life events and milestones. Then, they stripped it all away, stuffed everything with algorithmic sludge designed to push engagement metrics higher, and left us scrolling like the dopamine addicts we are.