carlo von lynX on Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:32:07 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> social media critique: next steps? |
I forward this post from Michael because I not only appreciate being acked, but because everything else in it is just so absolutely right. ----- Forwarded message from Michael Rogers <michael@briarproject.org> ----- On 14/01/18 16:36, Geert Lovink wrote: > How can we scale up and democratize all the > debates and proposals of the past 5-7 years of those that worked on > alternative network architectures? Is the reasonable, noble and moral > appeal a la Tim Berners-Lee the only one on offer? I think Carlo von Lynx will say we need new privacy laws, and he's right. Heather Marsh will say we need new structures for finding and managing collective truth, and she's right. Douglas Schuler will say we need new community-owned network infrastructure, and he's right. All of these things take us outside the realm of social media, which is appropriate because we've recognised that the ills of social media are symptoms of bigger problems in society, including an inadequate framing of privacy as an individual issue, a breakdown of consensus reality even within the institutions whose function was once to produce it, and the capture of the means of communication by a capitalist machine that excels at the manipulation of the social self. So perhaps the function of our critique at this point might be to lead the people who've just started to criticise Facebook to engage with these broader issues. Or maybe it's time to put down our phones, pick up shovels and start laying fibre. I don't know. > Antisocial media: why I decided to cut back on Facebook and Instagram > https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/01/antisocial-media-why-decided-cut-back-facebook-instagram?CMP=share_btn_tw Without meaning to pick on this particular article, it seems to me that there's an emerging social media wellness industry, which probably already has its detox plans, self improvement seminars and blogs with affiliate marketing links. Is it possible to lose 25 pounds and get better sleep by cutting out Facebook? We're going to find out. So another problem for us is how to avoid becoming part of an increasingly popular but empty pseudo-critique. Cheers, Michael ----- End forwarded message ----- I also totally agree with Morlock in asking to stop calling it "social media" and in regards to 34c3 would like to state that I clearly felt an atmosphere of "doing something" not only because it was the motto of the year, but because the defocusing that happened at 31c3, leading people back to broken federation models has mostly been overcome. It just took three extra years. Patrice mentioned the eternal problem of 'scaling up'. I held a side event talk on scalability which will come out on media.ccc.de towards the end of the month, but it isn't all that different from what I said at unlike us in 2012. Maybe now the time is ripe to make more sense in people's heads. Other than that I am still trying to get the notion out into the general public, that an Internet with all its cool apps and convenient thingies is possible while at the same time regulating away the surveillance economy and its threat to whatever is left of democracy. As long as a picture is painted, by which totalitarian big data is an inevitable drawback of technology, societal ner- vosity is not going to lead anywhere. The lure is just too powerful. We must get the message out there, that THEY CAN HAVE THE CAKE AND EAT IT. We just need to regulate this beast appropriately. Just yesterday even Italian state television conveyed the message that democracy is heavily at risk by the large monopolies of Silicon Valley, but when it comes to talking of alternatives all they do is interview blockchain entrepreneurs who would promise anything although they have no clue on how to fix the Internet for real. Most of them haven't even understood distri- buted networking of which blockchain is a limited and primitive subset. So, here's my plea to the nettime visionaries: - If you can influence the media, tell them that an Internet that does not undermine democracy is possible. It won't be cheap, but it can be done. People should take to the streets demanding it, because it is just as foundational as storming the Bastille, and it will cost them nothing. In fact, it will reopen the digital market for local industry, strengthening Europe. - If you are angry, yet sitting on your hands, consider taking a look at our legislation initiative and tell us how to improve it. Force me to put it onto a git- like platform for easier collaboration - I am willing, but I don't have any gitwiki at hand. Since 2013 it is lying around at youbroketheinternet.org, conveying a political demand in just the necessary level of detail. - If helping self-appointed lawmakers hurts your anarchic conscience, you may want to join a project to bring more anarchic culture into the democratic system and reduce representation. See structure.pages.de for that. Let's #tuwat. Faithfully, CvL. -- E-mail is public! Talk to me in private using encryption: http://loupsycedyglgamf.onion/LynX/ irc://loupsycedyglgamf.onion:67/lynX https://psyced.org:34443/LynX/ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: