What is Read Smarter?
Business models matter. Financial incentives matter. Political motivations matter. Design matters.
Most important of all, awareness as a reader matters.
I’ve been an incredibly annoying friend since early 2016. After years of working on various news products, that’s when I started to get really scared. The way everyone was consuming information, the links being shared, the evening news, the daily newsfeeds, the tone of conversation, the anger and vitriol, the tribalism, it all became very alarming. My friends who would engage in current event conversations ended up on the receiving end of maddening questions like “where did you find that?”, “why are you sharing that?”, or “are you aware of the financial incentives behind that story?”
Luckily, they didn’t respond too negatively (thank you for that). In fact, it’s led to a number of important conversations about what the process of consuming media in 2017 means. It was after the VICE Charlottesville documentary, I experimented with compiling a few basic ideas from various chats into a post that received an incredible response on this platform. People feel something is off. They want to be aware.
This is a conversation our team is hoping to encourage on a larger scale. There are two sides to this coin:
Awareness:
What are the business models, product decisions, and hidden motivations behind the constant barrage of media we are all consuming?
Action:
What can we, as individuals, do to become more aware consumers of online information?
These questions affect each and every one of us at the micro-level. Everything from our attention spans, our productivity, and even our emotional well-being is at stake. A basic awareness of how the information feeds that populate our daily existence can help us all simply be smarter and more balanced.
On a macro-level, we all are well aware of the consequences. Whether they realize themselves in the form of the odd reality-show existence of our current climate, or something far more dangerous remains to be seen.
This publication is for anyone who is at least a bit worried about the state of information. The goal is to help us all become increasingly aware of the business models underlying the platforms we depend on, how they drive the design decisions concealed in the products we use, the algorithms which control much of today’s flow of information, and above all, how we can better navigate this batshit insane environment.
Whether it’s posts on the science of disinformation, algorithmic manipulation, social media addiction, media financial modeling, or anything that highlights the problems of our information feeds, we would love others to join us with contributions.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Our goal is not to add to the fear-mongering that dominates much of our consumption these days. It is awareness. We would love contributions on how people are becoming smarter readers. Whether it’s apps they love, other writers to follow, tips to filter information, or even simply to help maintain focus, these are all solutions that we believe can have a significant impact.
Please Follow our publication, and if you’d like to contribute just submit your post, or email at ranjan[at]theedge.group and I would love to hear from you.
Read Smarter.
