Social Media
-
Living in porous, glass houses
•
2 min read
Privacy is extinct, self-inflicted. Within selfies, tweets, and blog posts, we open the floodgates to our mind. The internet normalizes exposure. Nothing to hide, we all build glass houses around our lives. Shine the light on us, we declare–pay us with your attention in the currency of likes and shares. Scroll and refresh, the influencer…
-
When sharing is not so self-caring
•
2 min read
Social media is a world where everyone tries to out self-promote each other and in doing so, stretch their lives further from reality. Even the destinations — whether it be a restaurant, hotel resort, or kayaking trip — want to make their experiences more Instagrammable. Sharing has commoditized life, turning us into an avalanche of…
-
Stand out of our light
•
2 min read
Huxley predicted that the deliberate flood of information, perhaps a more lethal strategy than Orwellian censorship, would dent our interest in reading books, having active opinions, and therefore make us passive. The internet, of course, puts information distribution on hyper-speed, skipping from one issue to the next. People consume and quickly forget what’s important, all the…
-
Third eye blind
•
1 min read
The smartphone is that third eye pitted between reality and irreality. We capture and share events to solidify our memory but in reality, by experiencing less we remember less. Sharing is forgetting. Go Tiger! (Spotted by Yoni Mernick)
-
Twitter = High School
•
2 min read
The impulsiveness, the cliques, the gossip, and the ego — the Twitter cesspool can be fun, entertaining, and darn-right toxic. Unlike Instagram, Twitter brings out the worst in people through the abuse of words. In short, it is ‘The High School We Can’t Log Off From.’ Writes New York Times columnist Jennifer Senior: A few…
-
Life on infinite scroll
•
1 min read
Scroll, tap, repeat, refresh. Novelty hypnotizes us. The fantasy that we can talk directly to celebrities and act like one ourselves for fifteen seconds puts us in a dopamine-infused trance. The internet’s a stage, with individuals accruing endorsements through the bartering of likes. Remember when tech intended to make the world a better place, not…
-
The Truman Show Delusion
•
1 min read
Some people believe that all reality is one big TV show and they’re the star. Others seem to think that the world is simulated and that their life has always been lived on a predetermined stage. But are we that special? Your fingerprints are uniquely yours. So is your Twitter microphone. But in the age…
-
“Real journalism matters”
•
1 min read
The medium is the message. And while some of those media messages may stick, most lack substance. Look closely. “Real journalism matters.” Pics via Columbia Journalism Review. (h/t @nudd)
-
Technology spreads unreality
•
1 min read
The reason we’re so comfortable around friends is because we can strip away the plastic and can be ourselves, zits and all. The problem with social media is that while it allows for the perfected self, it also undermines reality. Juxtaposing our screen lives and raw selves can make us feel fraudulent. Technology spreads unreality.…
-
The sorcery of screens
•
1 min read
The internet never ends. Mountains of content are piling up as we speak. The hook is neither in our control or that of technology. We pull the lever, the slot machine spits out a variable reward. It’s impossible to disentangle ourselves from the mindlessness of a ludic loop. With more data, the machine grows smarter…
-
ORCAA, a logo to certify organic algorithms
•
2 min read
“The internet is a propaganda machine,” writes author Cathy O’Neil in her book Weapons of Math Destruction where she criticizes the algorithms which have come to disrupt society and politics. Her latest project ORCAA, O’Neil Risk Consulting and Algorithmic Auditing, offers services to companies that promise to maintain a more honest algorithm that unlike Facebook, doesn’t sacrifice…
-
(All cartoons via Tom Chitty for The New Yorker)