The way information is presented to us on social media strips each piece of information from its spatial and temporal context. Each piece of content is its own “neat rectangle”, with little connection to the piece of information consumed before or after it.
You might see a video of a drone strike on the poor inhabitants of a country on the other side of the world, then an influencer reviewing luxury shoes just as far away, telling you “they are definitely worth it.”
This content has no relevance to each other and has little relevance to one’s real world existence. In How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell imagines different parts of her brain lighting up in a pattern that doesn’t make any sense.
How often have you watched a video explaining something interesting, only to realize you have no clue what you are talking about when you try to explain it to someone else?
Our ways of accessing information are optimized for engagement, not understanding. The result is a discombobulated, scrambled mess of information in our head that keeps us ‘flat’ to what is actually going on in the world.
Connections
Non-Performative Blogging Puts Curiosity First
Link Explanation: While social media feeds strip information of its context, digital gardens do the opposite. The ability to link ideas by associations or differences creates context. The reader can follow an idea via its connections to gather related information and develop an understanding.
Individualism Flattens Our Life Experience
Link Explanation: Social media asks us to express ourselves by defining ourselves. It asks us to think about ourselves, rather than others, in order to curate our profiles and allow the company to build a better prediction model for serving us ads. This individualism flattens our life experience. At the same time, the consumption side of social media also flattens our experience, as the information is stripped of its spacial and temporal context.
Link Explanation: In the note linked above, I developed the understanding that an audio-video experience of someone is deeply different than the real thing. You lack the other sensory experiences of the person. This is micro separation from reality. That is, how the content itself separates you from reality. Where the connect lies though, is that this current note describes the macro separation from reality. That is, not just how the audio-video experience strips context, but how the platform it is served on also contributes to the amount of context that is removed.
Reference
� How to Do Nothing