Astra Taylor: How Social Media is Remaking Our Society

Astra Taylor, born in 1971, is a Canadian-American filmmaker, activist, and author of “The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age.” Taylor writes about her views on our society and how she believes that the internet should enforce democracy by allowing everyone to contribute an equal amount to the community.

Her book goes on to reveal the truths about the “digital age” that we are living in and how it has allowed a smaller number of individuals to gain power and wealth through technology. Her main goal is to unite a majority of people, and in her words to go and “get the people’s platform back,” so that all people can use it.

Taylor often uses the word “utopia” to describe our society and the potential of progress in the world. In this video, she discusses how the internet has great potential and can bring us closer to the goal of utopia that most people have established for society. Furthermore, her use of the word “utopia” in the following tweet can relate to one of her views in her book — the web has created a social hierarchy that follows along the lines of downgrading women and people of color.

Astra Taylor has incredible and potentially world-changing ideas concerning media and how we need to use it to apply democratic views to the entire realm of technology. The people’s platform she describes is that realm, but it’s funny how something that was made for all people benefits a select few more than the others.