Ep 353: Apar Gupta Fights the Good Fight
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
The Addictive Nature of Social Media
This chapter explores the addictive nature of social media and its impact on people's happiness and sense of self. The speaker suggests renaming 'social media' to 'addiction media' to better capture its effects, discussing how platforms like WhatsApp and YouTube keep users constantly engaged. They also speculate on the future of social media, the rise of influencers, and the potential for increased state coercion and surveillance technologies.
How does technology affect our rights? Do we need protection from the state and Big Tech? Apar Gupta joins Amit Varma in episode 353 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his battle for digital rights in India. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Apar Gupta on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, IFF and YouTube. 2. Internet Freedom Foundation. (Donate to it!) 3. Apar Gupta's application to the Ashoka Fellowship (effectively a mini-autobiography). 4. IFF Wrapped, Unwrapped -- 2022 year-end event. 5. The Fine Line of Free Speech in India -- Apar Gupta. 6. When lawyers speak, they argue -- Apar Gupta. 7. I Don't Know -- Apar Gupta. 8. The archives of India Law and Technology Blog. 9. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 10. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad — Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Amartya Ghosh on Spotify. 12. Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride -- Onida commercial. 13. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. 14. Permanent Record -- Edward Snowden. 15. Nehru's India -- Taylor Sherman. 16. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 18. The Shallows -- Nicholas Carr. 19. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Why India Votes— Mukulika Banerjee. 21. Vlogbrothers, Tom Scott and Hardcore History. 22. The Techno-Optimist Manifesto -- Marc Andreeson. 23. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 24. Narendra Modi interviewed by Rajeev Shukla. 25. Sacred Games. 26. The Road Ahead -- Bill Gates. 27. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Vladimir Nabokov on Wikipedia and Amazon. 29. The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald. 30. Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Wikipedia and Amazon, 31. The Notebook Trilogy — Agota Kristof. 32. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 33. Jinnah -- Jaswant Singh. 34. Gujarat High Court lifts ban on Jaswant's book on Jinnah -- Saeed Khan. 35. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. 36. Charges dropped against girls held for Facebook post -- PTI. 37. Nikhil Pahwa on Twitter, LinkedIn, MediaNama and his own site. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Nikhil Pahwa: 1, 2, 3. 39. Chandrahas Choudhury on Instagram, Amazon and The Middle Stage. 40. Chandrahas Choudhury’s Country of Literature -- Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Kiran Jonnalagadda on Twitter and Hasgeek. 42. Sedition charges dropped against Aseem Trivedi -- PTI. 43. Justice K.S.Puttaswamy(Retd) vs Union Of India. 44. Hello world - and happy Independence Day! (2016) -- Apar Gupta. 45. IFF on Reddit. 46. Twitter and Tear Gas — Zeynep Tufekci. 47. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 48. Anushka Jain's thread on SRK and digital rights. 49. IFF's Aarogya Setu Infographic. 50. The AgriStack: A Primer -- Rohin Garg. 51. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 52. The Struggle And The Promise -- Naushad Forbes. 53. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments. 54. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 55. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 56. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 57. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 59. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 60. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 62. Why Freedom Matters — Episode 10 of Everything is Everything, hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. 63. India’s Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal. 64. Don’t Insult Pasta (2007) — Amit Varma. 65. The Matunga Racket (2007) — Amit Varma. 66. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens (2018) -- Amit Varma. 67. The Colonial Constitution -- Arghya Sengupta. 68. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 69. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 70. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 71. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 72. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 73. Roland Barthes and John Berger on Amazon. 74. Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and Gond art. 75. Bill Evans on Spotify and YouTube. 76. Night Song and Mustt Mustt -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with Michael Brook. 77. Doppelganger -- Naomi Klein. 78. Automating Inequality -- Virginia Eubanks. 79. The Speaking Constitution -- KG Kannabiran. 80. The Wages of Impunity -- KG Kannabiran. 81. The Good Fight. 82. Court and The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘Carrying a Torch’ by Simahina.
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