Ruminations on our relationship with technology
Is an epistemic breakdown from social media and AI deepfakes a market failure of the Web? Social media and AI deepfakes make it easy to spread falsehoods or distortions online. At the same time, these technologies make it more difficult to figure out what’s true. These (perverse) incentives can give rise to negative externalities in … Read more
Is generative AI going through a hype cycle? Technological innovation often goes through what’s called a hype cycle. Represented graphically, there’s a peak of inflated expectations about some supposedly revolutionary technology, followed by a trough of disillusionment. Then, there’s a gradual slope of enlightenment, or understanding what the technology realistically can and can’t do. Finally, … Read more
The media ecology of how social media changed communication One of the key insights of media ecology is that when we add a new technology to our culture, we don’t just have the same culture plus the new technology. Rather, the technology changes the culture. In other words, technological innovation can change our whole way … Read more
Social media’s twofold problem: manipulative algorithms and addictive design After posting a five-part article on social media reform, as well as publishing a couple of editorials on this topic (one highlighting the problem with social media, the other looking at solutions to this problem), I thought it would be helpful to sum up these thoughts. … Read more
Instrumentarianism and social media Summary: Instrumentarianism refers to Big Tech’s power to monitor and manipulate what you can and can’t see online. For instance, social media sites may use this power to commodify people’s attention and private data. The goal is to keep users on their sites for as long as possible, often through click-bait … Read more