MK
@mkay
MK
Hyperconnectivity in the cultural realm promises abundance, decommodification and democratization. Everyone has at their fingertips an infinitely rich and varieduniverse of cultural products. New cultural forms and innovative practices have proliferated. Much digital culture is freely shared rather than bought and sold. And ever-expanding circles
... See moreRogers Brubaker • Hyperconnected Culture and Its Discontents
Part of the reason social media has felt even more “flattening” to one’s identity
Is because social media has shown its benefit towards economic mobility
You can’t sell 50 things. You gotta sell 1, really well. And when that “widget” is the self -> you gotta package it neatly
Reggie Jamestwitter.com
It’s that these reactions are so normalized online that they’re almost boring.
Vox • Every "chronically online" conversation is the same
Some invest a lot of time and skill in crafting TikTok videos, but neither time nor skill is required. If TikTok “enables everyone to be a creator,” as its former mission statement proclaimed, this is because creative labor on the platform has been automated and deskilled.
Rogers Brubaker • Hyperconnected Culture and Its Discontents
Yet the cultural dominance of the iPhone — and the transformation of the open internet into “walled gardens” and apps focused on simplifying the user experience — has taken the “triumph of seamless usability” to a new level. This “tyranny of convenience,” to borrow Tim Wu’s phrase , should sensitize us to what may be lost when democratization
... See moreRogers Brubaker • Hyperconnected Culture and Its Discontents
It’s never felt more plausible that the age of social media might end—and soon.
Social media was never a natural way to work, play, and socialize, though it did become second nature.
The shift began 20 years ago or so, when networked computers became sufficiently ubiquitous that people began using them to build and manage relationships. Social
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