What’s to be Saved?
While I missed out on much of the first blogging wave, I was involved in a different community of rockstars — literally. Somewhere in your essay seems a glimpse of settler economics. Where the land was once rich and fertile and where small kingdoms existed — when settlers landed, having learned the bounty of limitless resources and instant riches, they turned the native digital producers to slaves. I talk about this native place in a piece on music discovery:
But a lot of that changed when torrent trackers for independent music emerged — strong communities that sprung up to trade albums, all neatly cataloged, curated and reviewed. I started to explore a wide range of music and engage with other collectors but most of all, really listen to an album … in it’s entirety.
I think we could shroud this discussion in the economics of advertising, designing for users and the advancement of technology but I suspect most arguments would identify a symptom rather than a cancer, which is much the same as it’s ever been, profits from free labor — I don’t think anyone is forcing people to use these platforms yet.
I’m interested in how you called out the Web as being the future of television. I agree with you there and look how that chapter is ending. I remember in my late teens when I realized that there we ad free alternatives to television.
Disgusted by blatant indoctrination and broadcast swill, I turned to independent music and cinema — which led me to Iranian cinema as it happens. Now, a decade later, I’m amazed that people still watch commercials — it seems to me a relic of the past.
I’d guess that the same cycle is repeating itself again — take Medium for example and it’s ad free & independent voice platform. It may take sometime and perhaps some catastrophe but I’d wager that things will change more than stay the same. This isn’t some blind faith in groupthink, and despite the fact that most of our brightest minds in Silicon Valley are working on solutions to inconsequential advertising problems, there are other smart people working on our blindspots.
