From a books internet to a television internet
July 15th, 2015The web we need to save is a post by Hossein Derakhshan, who is an Iranian-Canadian blogger who was jailed for 6 years, around questionable charges. Finally pardoned, he returned to the internet and he shares some thoughts on how it’s changed.
Indeed, when I started this blog, you sought and discovered new bloggers, content and shared them through posts.
Now, the internet pushes content to you, via feeds. Scrolling a feed is analagous to watching tv, as you spend more time with it more content comes to you.
The Stream, mobile applications, and moving images: They all show a departure from a books-internet toward a television-internet. We seem to have gone from a non-linear mode of communication — nodes and networks and links — toward a linear one, with centralization and hierarchies.
The web was not envisioned as a form of television when it was invented. But, like it or not, it is rapidly resembling TV: linear, passive, programmed and inward-looking.
When I log on to Facebook, my personal television starts.
This, is, to me indicative of the internet becoming mainstream as a media channel. To his point, it’s turning the internet into a television channel, rather than a book based internet.
It’s compelling read, challenging and provoking. Let me know what you think, I’m still mulling it…
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2015 at 2:03 pm. 