Has the web lost its power to drive social change? This is the conclusion of Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, imprisoned by the regime in 2008 and released and pardoned in 2014.
During his time in prison, the rise of smartphones and apps had changed the online world. Blogging and independent websites had been overtaken by social media networks, with the likes* of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram dominating the market.
Writing in a piece for the Guardian’s G2, Derakhshan mourned the loss of the web as he knew it, particularly the lessened power of the hyperlink, something he believes had a democratising effect on the access and sharing of information.
Nearly every social network now treats a link as just the same as it treats any other object – the same as a photo, or a piece of text. You’re encouraged to post one single hyperlink and expose it to a quasi-democratic process of liking and plussing and hearting. But links are not objects, they are relations between objects. This objectivisation has stripped hyperlinks of their immense powers.
Derakhshan’s article sparked a lively debate below the line. Here are some highlights from the debate - you can add your own views in the comments section below.
*pun intended.
Facebook: the Walmart of the internet?
Hacking your way through a jungle of nonsense
Great article, it reminded me of "surfing" the internet in the 1990s. I would just spend hours clicking on links to see where I would land. Hours later, I had read pages as diverse as the state of the emerging east European economy to the new thought movement of the early C20th to the new methods in digital multi tracking. The net felt like the library of Alexandria rebuilt. I still visit some of these quiet corners of cyberspace sacred-texts.com being a favourite.
The Graun btl section is as close to social media as I am prepared to go. "Surfing" the internet no longer feels the same. It's more akin to hacking my way through a jungle of trite nonsense of "likes", trivia and celebrity.
Drowned by banalities?
Excellent perspective on a growing problem. I am and have always been skeptical of social media. It promises freedom, increased communication, and more liberty yet the reality is that the more meaningful messages are increasingly downed by the drone of banalities. The government use it to avoid real communication with people and it becomes so difficult to filter the good from the bad. The challenge of the modern day is increasingly about quality control and it's already leading us back to more traditional forms of managed service. Quality newspapers have never been more important, especially when so many are become imitations of Buzzfeed and worse.
The app era has its advantages
I am experiencing the same phenomenon with my students. As a university lecturer, I used to communicate with my students via a blog much more than I do today. And I finally surrendered to the social networking system. Why? Because it is easier to use and more at hand. And that is exactly the problem that is weakening the power of reason in the new generation. The problem of this absentmindedness will fade away only if we can revitalise the power of thinking.
The app era, nevertheless, can have its own advantages: wider population accessing material more handily, and being able to engage in constant exchange of ideas in text based and document based networks such as the telegram.
Social media has given a platform to the voiceless
I agree with your thoughts on algorithms curating your news, but I think there is a place for all media, including social media and television. Although social media companies are large corporations and it can be argued that large companies never have our best interests in mind, social media has allowed for the rapid dissemination of information and protest organization. Clearly this is a double edged sword, but social media has provided a platform for the voiceless and disenfranchised. Blogs are still relevant but the sheer volume of blogs drown the voices of those speaking of injustice. I like being able to read unedited, unpromoted, and unfiltered thoughts as well as highly curated news articles that appear in international publications. Thank you, keep writing, glad you're free!
It’s harder to get the crowd’s attention
I find myself being subjected to more diverse opinions and viewpoints on Facebook than I ever did reading blogs. I do realise it's harder to get the crowds' attention when people don't seek you out only because you're you, but only if/when you have said something important enough that they want others to read it. However there's a great potential for reaching a wider audience - not all of us are on Facebook for the cute kittens (and not all bloggers wrote about politics back in the day)
You're not becoming too strict Hossein, you're brilliantly on point. Facebook(s) are like the Wallmarts of the internet, a one-stop shop, everything under one roof. Instead of a walk to various outlets, meeting different people as you go, hearing different voices (like the old-fashioned notion of web-surfing) you drive in a bubble to a place where nobody really talks. This is by design and it serves both the bottom-lines of these corporations and controlling 'elites'. It's easier to control the message when it's all happening under one roof and you have all of the data. It's easier to know which voices to invest in and at what time. Who to shine the spotlight on > and sprinkle some media seasoning when needed. But a dagger is always held just out view, you can be pulled out of favour and disgraced in an instant if you step out of line or get ideas above your station. Personalities seem to rise and fall naturally, but it's fairly well orchestrated. Links and the old spirit of the web work in opposition to this. Too many unknowns and uncertainties/Too much unfiltered information. Too messy and expensive to keep track of. The rise of app-culture is the death of surfing, useful, but information dead-ends for the user (Information rich for the developer) - storefronts choose what you show you, trading algorithms for the spirit of discovery challenging ideas.