Sep 18, 2017

The social media "issue"

By Michael Mizrahi • Issue #9 • View online

The longer I wait to send out a new issue, the higher the pressure is to make it great. So, after 8 months of waiting, we’re back! We’re talking about social media this time, and the links dive deep into the increasingly negative role that advertising apps play in our daily lives.

Bottom line: deleting these apps from your phone is some sort of social badge (not sure what kind), and since doing it I feel freed from pulling out my phone in a very empowering way. Not sure I’m ready to say that I feel more present than ever, because it still feels like I’m missing out – but I’m getting closer to not having to think about it during each elevator ride, every moment when the person you’re at dinner with leaves the table, or when you find yourself avoiding an otherwise innocuously awkward moment.

Curious to hear your thoughts after you read the pieces below.

My friend Drew Austin recently wrote about the Privilege of Logging Off in his newsletter Kneeling Bus (which you should sign up for).

[Music recommendation] This was compiled while listening to Alohaha Sides A & B (listen on Apple Music or Spotify. RIP Rdio).

You are the product

This is a long one, and the paragraph below only scratches the surface. This topic – of advertising, privacy, and the role that these few big companies play in our daily lives through a front – is increasingly important to understand in today’s world, so take the time to understand.

Facebook, in fact, is the biggest surveillance-based enterprise in the history of mankind. It knows far, far more about you than the most intrusive government has ever known about its citizens. It’s amazing that people haven’t really understood this about the company. I’ve spent time thinking about Facebook, and the thing I keep coming back to is that its users don’t realise what it is the company does. What Facebook does is watch you, and then use what it knows about you and your behaviour to sell ads. I’m not sure there has ever been a more complete disconnect between what a company says it does – ‘connect’, ‘build communities’ – and the commercial reality.

www.lrb.co.uk • Share

Addicted to Your iPhone? You’re Not Alone

Tristan Harris believes Silicon Valley is addicting us to our phones. He’s determined to make it stop.

www.theatlantic.com • Share

How Instagram Makes You Basic, Boring, and Completely Deranged

By now, most people are familiar with the bad tendencies Instagram encourages: self-absorption, stalking, pastel-pink blandness. Two recent works—a novel, “Sympathy,” and a film, “Ingrid Goes West"—take this as their subject.

broadly.vice.com • Share