Category: Media
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This is why my heart still belongs to Mastodon. It’s completely decentralized and servers are maintained by individual admins. This environment does bring onboarding, usability and discovery challenges, however. ↩︎
A Shield Against Enshittification
I’ve noticed a lot of talk about hyperlinks lately. A post from Nilay Patel initially caught my attention yesterday and it was followed by a wonderful article from Anil Dash about the ways corporate social media platforms like Substack work hard to co-opt open protocols and keep users inside their respective walled gardens. Key to his argument is the fact that people are now referring to their email newsletters as “their Substacks.” Dash writes:
We constrain our imaginations when we subordinate our creations to names owned by fascist tycoons. Imagine the author of a book telling people to “read my Amazon”. A great director trying to promote their film by saying “click on my Max”. That’s how much they’ve pickled your brain when you refer to your own work and your own voice within the context of their walled garden. There is no such thing as “my Substack”, there is only your writing, and a forever fight against the world of pure enshittification.
Email is email. Writing is writing. Personally, I’ve worked hard to establish a POSSE approach to publishing my thoughts on the internet. The way it works is this: I publish everything on this website, where I own the domain and the content that lives here, and then I choose how and where that content gets delivered. You like email newsletters? Cool, that’s an option. Are you old school and want to subscribe via RSS? Yup. Do you spend your time on Mastodon or Bluesky? Posts hit those platforms as well. I even do this for shorter, in the moment posts that appear as if I’m posting from within the platform itself. This way of working is my attempt to shield myself from the eventual enshittification that is inevitable on any platform that needs to create a return for investors1.
A lot of folks are really enjoying their time on Bluesky right now. They’re harkening back to their glory days of early Twitter when the firehose still existed, reverse chron was the only feed, influencers hadn’t been born yet, and the social web was like the Wild West. I’ll admit, I am caught up in the nostalgia a bit too.
Bluesky is is a corporation, however, and it’s raising a lot of money from private equity. Eventually the platform will need to generate revenue and there are really only a few ways to do that in the context of social media. All of those ways will typically make platforms worse for users.
Hopefully I’m wrong and Bluesky becomes a social platform that honors its users at scale. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts, but I’m not holding my breath. If and when enshittification does come to Bluesky, and there is a mass exodus to the next big social platform, at least the POSSE philosophy will have served me well.
Target debuts ‘weirdly hot’ Santa named Kris in new holiday campaign:
The modern-day take on Santa Claus is introduced in a 30-second commercial, “Born to Be Kris,” where he rides out to a Target in a red Ford Bronco truck (with license plate “Sleigh”).
C’mon Target, is nothing sacred?
Mike Thurk is a photographer and outdoor adventurer who is gaining notoriety for his high-contrast, black and white photos. I like his take on the similarities between athletics and art:
I feel the creative process for athletes and artists runs parallel. It’s often I hear athletes discuss the need to find inspiration for certain efforts, and it’s not unlike an artist waiting for a similar moment. They also both reward those that plan, and practice.
An insightful post-mortem from Taylor Lorenz on the media ecosystem built and funded by the GOP to propel the ‘Bro Vote,’ which ultimately won them the presidency. This piece shines an important light on why the left always seems to be trailing in messaging and media strategy.
Facing tremors, insomnia and pain, Pittsburgh-based artist John Peña searched for answers — and came to blame the noxious air in his neighborhood. Read John’s amazing chronicle of his shifting ailments captured through several years of daily sketches. (via PublicSource; support independent media!)
Legendary punk photographer Jim Saah will give a talk tomorrow (8/22) at The Government Center in Pittsburgh. The talk will be followed by a performance from J. Robbins of Jawbox. Looks like an awesome event.