When the shopping mall was originally conceived in the united states, there were high minded ideals about what it could be. But that really did fall away after privatization and a need to shape the internet to serve profit. Sqskems: How should we relate to the techno utopianism that we associate with the nineties but which had a long after life? Paris: There's so much nestalgia out there for the early internet; i can't shake my sense of how mongoloid our online lives have become.
Paris Marx is joined by Ben Tarnoff to discuss why the problems with the modern internet, including its excessive concentration in the hands of a few companies and the way its dominant firms shape our interactions to generate profit, find their root in the decision to privatize the network. To fix them, that needs to be changed.
Ben Tarnoff is the author of Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future and the co-founder of Logic Magazine. Follow Ben on Twitter at @bentarnoff.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Support the show