np/cyberculture ▶
YouTube URL cyberculture bookmarklet Name / label / descriptive title

"The early internet is breaking - here’s how the World Wide Web from the 90s on will be saved"
About: Olia Lialina [Wikipedia] and Dragan Espenschied [Wikipedia] are part of a growing group of people who preserve and archive our online digital history. They see the web from the 90s and 2000s as an artifact, at times, even, Net Art.
More: https://net-art.org/jodi [Wikipedia]
More: 'The Useless Web' https://theuselessweb.com/
Point: http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/
Bibliography: 'One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age | Digging through the Geocities Torrent'. (2025). Geocities.institute. https://blog.geocities.institute/ OneTerabyteOfKilobyteAge. (n.d.). One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age Photo Op. This Tumblr Accompanies One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age, the Geocities Research Blog by Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied. Screenshots Are Automatically Generated from a Stash of Old Geocities Home... Retrieved April 15, 2026, from [blog] Lialina, O. (2005). "The Internet of the 90’s was bright, rich, personal, slow and under construction". [folksonomy] Lialina, O. (2026). "Internet Cafés: hybrids involving analogue and digital, virtual and real". [folksonomy] The Awl, & Allen, M. (2012, June 28). "A Suitably Bizarre Interview With The Early Web Provocateurs At Jodi.org". Medium; The Awl. https://medium.com/the-awl/a-suitably-bizarre-interview-with-the-early-web-provocateurs-at-jodi-org-f1035a1d78ac Bourn, C., & Tate, C. (2025). 'Life before Google'. [digital archives]

Bruce Sterling (2014). Transmediale Opening Ceremony Talk
More: Bruce Sterling [Wikipedia] from the Transmediale archive [digital archives]
More: 'Bruce Sterling in 1992 Comments on Bohemia, the Electronic Frontier, and the 1990s' https://www.youtube.com/embed/hwMsmKlqUBg
Related: "Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity" (Barlow, J. P., 1996, February 8).
Criticism: Barlow's perspective is consistent with the political philosophy of Libertarianism [Wikipedia]
Biography: John Perry Barlow [Wikipedia] "became a digital rights activist and a champion of free speech on the internet. His ideas captured the mood of a generation that believed people could reinvent themselves in a new virtual world with no government controls and no national boundaries. And, by the way, where they could share digital music and movies without paying for them. As Barlow pointed out, digital goods, unlike physical goods, could be infinitely replicated at zero cost" (Schofield, J., 2018, February 11).
Bibliography: Presentation by Bruce Sterling at transmediale 2014 afterglow Opening Ceremony | transmediale. (2026). Transmediale.de. [digital archives] transmediale. (2024). Transmediale.de. https://transmediale.de/en/media/bruce-sterling-at-afterglow-effects-transmediale-2014-opening-ceremony Barlow, J. P. (1996, February 8). 'A declaration of the independence of cyberspace'. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence Schofield, J. (2018, February 11). 'John Perry Barlow obituary'. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/11/john-perry-barlow-obituary

BBC World Service (20 August 2026). "The Rise of Deepfakes: How AI Changed Porn, Politics, and Reality", BBC World Service Documentaries
About: "One holiday snap has been manipulated thousands of times on thousands of computers. Here's how a woman on a beach in Bora Bora taught the whole world to tinker with pictures" (Comstock, G., 2014, June 13).
Further to this: Pandorabots CEO On Dangers of Erotica in AI (2025) https://newpractices.co.uk/GenerativeAI/#NNKz8Hyoy9Q
Related: Hakeem Oluseyi, NOVA PBS Official (26 August 2025). "Particles of Thought: The Deepfake Detective and The Future of AI With Hany Farid" https://newpractices.co.uk/AI/#nG2_GhNdTek
More: https://newpractices.co.uk/AIslop/
Bibliography: Comstock, G. (2014, June 13). 'Jennifer in paradise: The story of the first photoshopped image'. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/photography-blog/2014/jun/13/photoshop-first-image-jennifer-in-paradise-photography-artefact-knoll-dullaart Baxter Street at the Camera Club of New York. (n.d.). 'Jennifer in Paradise'. Retrieved 21 August 2026, from https://www.baxterst.org/jennifer-in-paradise/ Kushner, D. (2003, November). "These are definitely not Scully’s breasts". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2003/11/fakers/ University of Virginia. (2023). "What the heck is a deepfake?" University of Virginia. Security.Virginia.Edu. https://security.virginia.edu/deepfakes

Michael Wesch 'The Anthropology of YouTube' (2008)
Point: "YouTube, which is not just a technology. 'It's a social space built around video communication that is searchable, taggable and mashable,' Wesch said. 'It is a space where identities, values and ideas are produced, reproduced, challenged and negotiated in new ways'" (Library of Congress, 2008). [folksonomy]
Transcript: "...and there's a lot more going on than just dancing. And you know, you think about the joy that people are expressing and the fun that they're having as they do this dance. And I like to think of it as more than just a dance, it's a celebration. It's a celebration of new forms of empowerment. You know, anybody with a webcam now has a stronger voice and presence. It's a celebration of new forms of community, and types of community that we've really never seen before, global connections, transcending space and time. It's a celebration of new and unimaginable possibilities. And you know, you can say this is all hype. Like these are just people dancing and having fun, but think about what they're dancing in front of. They're dancing in front of about a billion boxes in places all over the world that are networked together and allows us to connect in ways we've never connected before. And in fact, they can actually invent new ways to connect with each other and it's getting easier and easier to do so. And so that's what I like to think that this is really just a very important moment." https://www.youtube.com/embed/TPAO-lZ4_hU?start=289&end=332
Context: "Early Web 2.0 Nostalgia (also known as 2010s Internet Nostalgia) is a cultural phenomenon and nostalgic trend prevalent among Gen Z and younger Millennials. It involves the sentimental romanticization of internet culture, social media trends, and artifacts from the late 2000s through the late 2010s." [pop culture wiki]
Bibliography: Michael Wesch To Discuss 'The Anthropology of YouTube.' (2008, May 22). The Library of Congress. [US Library of Congress]

Clay Shirky: 'How social media can make history' TED-Ed (2009)
Bibliography: Shirky, C. (2009, June). 'How social media can make history'. Ted.com; TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_social_media_can_make_history

David Dworsky, Victor Köhler (2011). "PressPausePlay"
Blurb: "The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, [video clip] a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world's most influential creators of the digital era." [imdb]
More: audio interview with David Dworsky and Victor Köhler at the SXSW 2011 film festival recorded by Directors Notes [site archive]
Bibliography: Shoard, C., & Smith, E. (2011, March 15). "SXSW 2011: The makers of PressPausePlay on fear and self-expression in Austin – video interview". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/video/2011/mar/15/sxsw-2011-press-pause-play-video

Mario Sixtus (2025). "KI: Der Tod des Internet [AI: Death of the Internet?]", DW Documentary
Concept: "The Dead Internet Theory (DIT) [Wikipedia] originated more than 10 years ago in response to changes in the internet, especially the arrival of social networks, though at that time it had a conspiratorial tone. Currently, the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) has rebooted the theory, driven by the use of bots to generate content and the obsession with 'likes.' Now, platforms prioritize participation and income metrics over authenticity, and they privilege monetization. This affects the authenticity of connections for which networks originally existed" (Guerra, M., 2026, August 11).
Point: "These are prime examples of what is now known as slop: a term of art, akin to spam, for low-rent, scammy garbage generated by artificial intelligence and increasingly prevalent across the internet — and beyond. From their weird narrative instincts and inert prose, Clarke realized the stories came straight from ChatGPT. Sometimes they would arrive with the original prompt included, which was often as simple as 'Write a 1,000-word science-fiction story.' ... In the nearly two years since, a rising tide of slop [Wikipedia] has begun to swamp most of what we think of as the internet, overrunning the biggest platforms with cheap fakes and drivel, seeming to crowd out human creativity and intentionality with weird AI crap. On Facebook, enigmatic pages post disturbing images of maimed children and alien Jesuses; on Twitter, bots cluster by the thousands, chipperly and supportively tweeting incoherent banalities at one another; on Spotify, networks of eerily similar and wholly imaginary country and electronic artists glut playlists with bizarre and lifeless songs; on Kindle, shoddy books with stilted, error-ridden titles (The Spellbound Quest: Students Perilous Journey to Correct Their Mistake) are advertised on idle lock screens with blandly uncanny illustrations" (Read, M., 2024, September 25).
Transcript: "It's very difficult to get in touch with people who are actually running these pages producing shrimp Jesus and whatever other crazy things you can imagine. And finally, I found a WhatsApp number attached to one of these pages. And I texted this guy who popped up and introduced himself to me as a guy named Steven Mwangi, who I believe lives in Kenya. He told me some of his biggest topics are religion, and specifically Christianity, animals – people love animals – and Manchester United, the English soccer club. So, he tries to create images around these that are high engagement. People will want to click on them, share them, comment on them, and he shares them to the pages. And when they go viral, he actually is able to get a small payout from Facebook. So, to me, this was a real eureka moment when I was researching this. It became clear that Facebook was subsidizing the slop itself. It was not just a willing participant. It was an aggressive participant in turning its whole platform into wall to wall Shrimp Jesus, basically. But this phenomenon is not limited to Shrimp Jesus or Facebook. Social networks are bursting with grotesque AI generated deepfakes intended to move, frighten or enrage us. They appeal to our empathy, envy, greed, hatred or fear– wanting us to 'click and share.'" https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=189&end=283
Transcript: "Dubious online coaches are fueling the AI craze in Germany as well. They claim to know top secret hacks to create automated AI videos. They say this content can guarantee 'passive income' [commentary] – the new buzzword for what was once called 'making money while you sleep'." https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=314
Issue: North Carolina Musician Charged with Music Streaming Fraud Aided by Artificial Intelligence (4 September 2024). https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=1302
Concept: John Perry Barlow [Wikipedia] [see]
Concept: 'Enshittification' [Wikipedia] [see]
Concept: early natural language processing computer programme known as 'ELIZA' [Wikipedia]
Transcript: "AI chatbots are essentially fraudsters claiming to be experts on something they know nothing about. And the human mind facilitates the lie, because as soon as something can speak, we assume it has a certain level of intelligence." https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=2272
Transcript: "I keep thinking about this thing that this one AI company executive said. He said, 'The problem right now is that we don't have enough AI shaped holes to fill.' And to me, that's so revealing, because it's like looking at the world and trying to find problems that fit your solution. And I think that really perfectly summarizes what we're seeing with AI, which is that no one has figured out the business model for this big AI thing. And so, what are the big tech companies doing? They're pushing it down our throats." https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=2431
Transcript: "For any AI project that you see that's a success, there are people sitting behind the machine working on it. And even the simple decency of mentioning that somebody somewhere did it" https://www.youtube.com/embed/8qVbE9DHkEk?start=2585 Also, see this: Nermeen Shaikh (27 August 2026). "Data workers: 'today's factory workers' exploited & traumatized in the pursuit of autonomous tech", Democracy Now! https://newpractices.co.uk/AI/#o1iLPxwgV4E
Concept: the 'stochastic parrots' hypothesis [Wikipedia] https://www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-is-missing-out-on-ai-sanders-doctorow-bender-bores
More: https://newpractices.co.uk/AIslop/
Biography: Amba Kak [Wikipedia] Cory Doctorow [Wikipedia] https://newpractices.co.uk/GenerativeAI/#T1KIwaYRs1g Evan Ratliff [Wikipedia] Melanie Mitchell [Wikipedia] Emanuel Maiberg [LinkedIn] [Wikipedia] https://www.404media.co/author/emanuel-maiberg/ Mats Schönauer [imdb] Max Read [Muckrack] Milagros Miceli https://dair-institute.org/team/milagros-miceli/ Joan Kinyua [LinkedIn] https://www.youtube.com/embed/DcgsUuSq3Qs https://datalabelers.org/the-team.html
Film: GDELT TV Visual Explorer https://api.gdeltproject.org/api/v2/tvv/tvv?id=DW_20260520_140300_AI
Bibliography: Welle, D. (2026, May 6). "AI - death of the internet?" https://www.dw.com/en/ai-death-of-the-internet/a-76641488 Guerra, M. (2026, August 11). 'The dead internet theory'. Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education. https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-news/the-dead-internet-theory/ Read, M. (2024, September 25). "Drowning in Slop A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with Al garbage - and it's only going to get worse". New York Magazine. Intelligencer. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-generated-content-internet-online-slop-spam.html [digital archives] Renzella, J., & Rozova, V. (2024, May 21). "Is The 'Dead Internet Theory' True? Shrimp Jesus Phenomenon Explained". Science Alert. https://www.sciencealert.com/is-the-dead-internet-theory-true-shrimp-jesus-phenomenon-explained North Carolina Musician Charged with Music Streaming Fraud Aided by Artificial Intelligence (4 September 2024). [Government] Maxwell, T. (2024, November). AI slop website sent thousands of people to a halloween parade that didn't exist. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/ai-slop-website-sent-thousands-of-people-to-a-halloween-parade-that-didnt-exist-2000519496

Amy Goodman (10 October 2025). "'Enshittification': Cory Doctorow On Why Big Tech Sucks, Keeps Getting Worse & What To Do About It", Democracy Now!
Concept: 'Enshittification' [Wikipedia] is "'The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.' ... Think Twitter, a once useful and often fun microblogging site twisted by a tech bro into X, a post-truth swamp. Or Facebook, where you’re now more likely to be presented with crocheted arseless chaps from Shein than a humblebrag from a dear friend. Or Instagram, where cute dog videos once reigned. Now, yet another unfathomable algorithm serves up a diet of tradwives, gym bros and uwu girls" (Shepherd, T., 2024, November 26).
Bibliography: Goodman, A. (2025b, October 10). "‘Enshittification’: Cory Doctorow on Why Big Tech Sucks, Keeps Getting Worse & What to Do About It". Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/cory_doctorow Shepherd, T. (2024, November 26). "‘What many of us feel’: Why ‘enshittification’ is macquarie dictionary’s word of the year". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/26/enshittification-macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year-explained

Ethan Zuckerman: 'Time to break the cyber-utopian myth' (2010)
About: "Who do you read and associate with online? Ethan Zuckerman [Wikipedia] argues that cultural and linguistic barriers stand in the way of our using the internet to tackle global issues" (Hanman, N., Reed, J., Domokos, J., & Bennett, C., 2010).
Transcript: "...early on in the Internet people often came online because they were looking for a community around a very specific interest. So if you were interested in something esoteric you might come online find people around the world, or at least whoever was online at that point uh make friendships that were somewhat non-geographic. Now with the rise of things like Facebook other social networks we see a lot of replication of offline social networks online. If you think about what happens on Facebook - the first thing Facebook asks you to do is find who you went to high school with and who you went to college with so essentially if they were already your friends by virtue of the fact that you grew up in the same neighbourhood they're now still your friends online. And then we go a step further services like Facebook but also to a certain extent Twitter um in a slightly different way uh Community filters like Reddit and Digg [Wikipedia] rely on a flock of people to tell you what's interesting and what's popular and if your flock is sufficiently diverse that's great um but if you happen to go to uh A Flock that has a lot of people who view the world the same way you may miss some very valuable pieces of information. There's a very old and very well documented trend in sociology called homophily a lot of this literature starts in the 1950s uh where sociologists started looking at how people formed friendships and it turns out that even in a friendship of even in a community of people of of different races different genders so on and so forth you'll see biases in friendship formation you'll see pervasive biases they tend to be racial gender-based religious so on and so forth it's a much older issue than the 1950s you know it's it's uh 'birds of a feather flock together' which literally you can find references to in Aristotle it seems to be a very basic human tendency." https://www.youtube.com/embed/jykGYsrm1es?start=38&end=112
Point: https://www.youtube.com/embed/jykGYsrm1es?start=112&end=158 Homophily is the sociological principle that individuals associate and bond with similar others, often summarized as "birds of a feather flock together".
Bibliography: Hanman, N., Reed, J., Domokos, J., & Bennett, C. (2010, July 26). "Time to break the cyber-utopian myth." The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2010/jul/26/cyber-utopian-myth-internet-ethan-zuckerman

National Science and Media Museum "Robbie Cooper's Immersion project" (2010)
More: https://www.youtube.com/embed/A7e5lE3ZW98?start=46
More: https://www.youtube.com/embed/HfOUhwhdUV0 Artwork: https://robbiecooper.com/project/immersion
Bibliography: "What’s your screen time? Collaborate with Robbie Cooper on his 'Immersion' project" - National Science and Media Museum blog. (2020, December 9). National Science and Media Museum Blog. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/robbie-cooper-immersion-mass-collaboration-kickstarter/ National Science and Media Museum | Robbie Cooper. (2020, December 9). National Science and Media Museum Blog. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/robbie-cooper-immersion-alter-ego/

Internet Watch Foundation (30 Jun 2026). 'Stopping AI image abuse: Advice for Parents and Carers'
Context: The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) [Wikipedia] https://www.iwf.org.uk/about-us/
Bibliography: Milmo, D. (2026, July 3). 'AI prey: why watchdogs are telling parents to protect children from nudification apps'. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/03/ai-prey-watchdogs-telling-parents-protect-children-nudification-apps

The Independent (31 May 2026). 'As Iran war threatens undersea cables in the Strait of Hormuz, is it time to rethink the internet?'
Bibliography: Croft, A. (2026, May 31). 'As Iran threatens undersea cables in the Strait of Hormuz, is it time to rethink the internet?' The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-undersea-cables-internet-strait-of-hormuz-red-sea-b2985895.html

Joanna Stern (3 June 2026). 'How People With Meta Glasses Can Secretly Record You'
About: Joanna Stern [channel] of https://thenewthings.com/video discusses issues raised by the use of Meta's 'smart glasses'.
Issue: "Meta is selling its smart glasses as the instant answer to everything, but the reality is more like an episode of Black Mirror. For women on the other side of the lens, the way Meta’s glasses combine a database and a camera make them into an invasive, high-tech surveillance nightmare. When you record video with a smartphone, you have to hold it up – a clear signal that you’re taking footage. But smart glasses – or as critics call them 'pervert glasses' – are designed to be inconspicuous, ready to record at a moment’s notice" (Good Law Project, 2026).
Further to this: "Part of the problem is that privacy settings mostly protect the person who bought the glasses. What about everyone around them — some of whom may not even realize glasses can have cameras, much less notice the LED? Those bystanders haven't agreed to Meta's terms or looked over its privacy policies. And what happens as these devices grow more advanced and ubiquitous?" (Shanklin, W., 2026, August 12).
Bibliography: Good Law Project. (2026, May 26). "Smart glasses: A clear risk to women’s safety". Good Law Project. https://goodlawproject.org/smart-glasses-a-clear-risk-to-womens-safety/ Shanklin, W. (2026, August 12). 'German nonprofit files criminal complaint over meta smart glasses privacy'. Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2235857/german-nonprofit-files-criminal-complaint-over-meta-smart-glasses-privacy/

Constance Beaufils, Shiyu Yuan, Heejung Chung (16 October 2025). "The 'tradwife' Trend: What Do Young Women Really Want?", King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership
Biography: Nara Smith [Wikipedia]
Bibliography: Beaufils, C., Chung, H., & Yuan, S. (2025). "Tradwife: 'Between myths and realities'". In King’s College London. King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/tradwife-between-myths-and-realities/ [pdf] Chung, H., Scott, E., Amory, L., & Nightingale, K. (2025, October 15). 'Tradwife: Myths and Realities'. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/tradwife-myths-and-realities

Amelia Adams, 60 Minutes Australia (24 May 2026). "The truth about 'tradwives' and the men who want them"
Point: "Meet Estee Williams. With more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, another 200,000 on TikTok and a history of appearances on shows like Dr Phil and Piers Morgan, Williams is one of the most prominent faces of an internet phenomenon-slash-controversy: the traditional wife, or 'tradwife'. Tradwives first began trending online in 2020, when people were looking to wring excitement and comfort out of the smallest household tasks. Although there’s no single definition of 'tradwife' – and many female influencers who’ve been decorated with the label don’t use it or even reject it – you know the tradwife when you see her. She is probably baking sourdough in an immaculate outfit, has a gaggle of kids (or wants them), and suggests – either silently or very loudly, like Williams – that life is better when women adhere to 'traditional' gender roles and perfect at-home domesticity and nurturing" (Sherman, C., 2024, July 24).
Related: Personality Influencer Estee Williams
Related: Coded Femininity Over Trad Wives
Related: http://trigg.gr/t/120674
Related: Pamela Brown (6 April 2026). "The 'trad Wives' Leaving High-control Christian Nationalist Communities", CNN https://www.youtube.com/embed/7dXBpWiwxkw
Phenomenon: Nationalism Christian
More: 60 Minutes Australia (24 May 2026). "The truth about 'tradwives' and the men who want them | 60 Minutes Australia" https://www.youtube.com/embed/P0CXoASDQ6U?start=22
More: ABC News (20 June 2024). "'tradwives' Trend On Social Media Receives Pushback" https://www.youtube.com/embed/3vB8-vxLTuw
Bibliography: Sherman, C. (2024, July 24). "Sundresses and rugged self-sufficiency: ‘Tradwives’ tout a conservative American past ... that didn’t exist". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2024/jul/24/tradwives-tiktok-women-gender-roles Chung, H., & Yuan, S. (2025, October 16). "The tradwife phenomenon isn’t a return to tradition, it’s a plea for balance". King’s College London. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/the-tradwife-phenomenon-isnt-a-return-to-tradition-its-a-plea-for-balance

Kleurnet Televisie Amsterdam (1996). 'Mondo 2000, New Edge Design with Heide Foley in Berkeley'
More: Mondo 2000 Issue 10 [pdf] [Wikipedia]

Hakeem Oluseyi, NOVA PBS Official (26 August 2025). "Particles of Thought: The Deepfake Detective and The Future of AI With Hany Farid"
Transcript: "I honestly don't know, and I also don't know where this latest AI boom is taking us. I don't think anybody knows, honestly. But here's what I can tell you, if you look at the personal computer revolution, that took roughly 50 years to unfold, which at the time felt really fast- - Where do you start from like 1945? - Let's start in 1950, 1945, and let's go to about 2000 when more than half of US homes had a personal computer. Then you look at the internet revolution, right, from the beginning of the HTML protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, to about half the world's population being online. That was 25 years. The mobile revolution was less than 10 years. Well, the AI revolution of course started in 1950, but the one we are experiencing now was about two to three years. - Wow. - We have gone from 0 to 100 miles an hour where we are now talking about existential threats of AI, we're talking about 50% of jobs being eliminated in the next five years, we are talking about general artificial intelligence, we're talking about 'The Terminator,' and we would not have had this conversation five years ago. And, by the way, on top of all of that, we don't even know what's real any more because we consume all of our content from online sources." https://www.youtube.com/embed/nG2_GhNdTek?start=227
Related: BBC World Service (20 August 2026). "The Rise of Deepfakes: How AI Changed Porn, Politics, and Reality", BBC World Service Documentaries [see]
Bibliography: Oluseyi, H. (2025, August 26). 'Particles of Thought: The Deepfake Detective' [Broadcast]. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-deepfake-detective/

Arun Maini (22 Nov 2025). North Korea smartphones

Adam Curtis (2011). S1.E1 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: Love and Power'
Transcript: "ever since the 1970s computer utopians in California believed that if human beings were linked by webs of computers then together they could create their own kind of order it was a cybernetic dream which said that the feedback of information between all the individuals connected as nodes in the network would work to create a self-stabilising system the world would be stable yet everyone would be heroic [Ayn] Randan beings completely free to follow their desires" Adam Curtis (2011). https://www.youtube.com/embed/I6EBpLfLHCA?start=437&end=504
Transcript: "In 1991 a leading computer engineer from California gave a dramatic demonstration he was called Loren Carpenter [Wikipedia] he invited hundreds of people to a large shed on each seat was a small paddle and in front of them was a giant screen we told them nothing for a while we just left them left the things on the seats and people would pick this up and look at it and say what's that and then somebody know noticed that there's little red and green dots up there on the screen and this is red and green so maybe that has something to do with that that would be that okay there I am and when that happened the room erupted just totally spontaneous we didn't say anything Carpenter then began an experiment he projected the early computer game pong each half of the audience jointly controlled the bat on their side of the screen if an individual held up red on their paddle a computer sensor picked it up and the bat on the screen went down if they held up green it went up but they had to operate it together when the game is being played and the ball is going back and forth if it's down here and it's headed that way some people are going to have to show red to keep it from going all the way to the top if everybody just showed green it would slam up to the top and the ball would miss so something happened in that group of people where some decided to show green and some decided to show red to cause it to stop in the right place and we have no idea what did that Carpenter believed that what he had created was a model of a society where there was no hierarchy where everyone made their own decisions without guidance yet because they were linked by the machines out of it came a stability and an order so they're all acting as individuals because each one of them can decide what they're going to do they have total freedom about what they decide to do but there's an order there's a an order that emerges that gives them a kind of a of an amiea like effect where they're they Surge and and they play it was kind of in the nature of an experiment I wanted to see if no hierarchy existed at all what would happen and what did happen they formed a um a kind of a a a um a subconscious consensus." https://www.youtube.com/embed/I6EBpLfLHCA?start=508&end=688
Bibliography: Crossley-Holland, D. (2011). 'Love and Power'. A. Curtis, Ed. & Trans. 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace'. [imdb]

Henry Jenkins on transmedia (2009)
Transcript: "we're definitely at a moment of transition a moment where an old media system is dying and a new media system is being born an era when spectatorial culture is giving way to participatory culture where a society based on a small number of companies controlling the storytelling apparatus is giving away to a much more complex media scape where average citizens have the ability to seize control over the media technology and tell their own stories in powerful new ways" https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nk3pahtpsVY?start=20&end=49
Concept: As Henry Jenkins explains: "Transmedia storytelling refers to a new aesthetic that has emerged in response to media convergence—one that places new demands on consumers and depends on the active participation of knowledge communities. Transmedia storytelling is the art of world making. To fully experience any fictional world, consumers must assume the role of hunters and gatherers, chasing down bits of the story across media channels, comparing notes with each other via online discussion groups, and collaborating to ensure that everyone who invests time and effort will come away with a richer entertainment experience" (Jenkins, H., 2006, p.21).
Consider (Simon): Fast-forward to 2020 where Ric Hill [channel] debates the whys and wherefores of prominent media conglomerations adopting transmedia strategies to promote their Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect and Doctor Who franchises. [Wikipedia] In doing so, he explains: https://www.youtube.com/embed/3zx_6N_NvCg?start=38
Criticism: As Robert Pratten [Wikipedia] explains: "With this second definition [i.e. 'taking the audience on an emotional journey that goes from moment-to-moment.'] we can say that transmedia storytelling is a design philosophy. It’s a design philosophy that is still in in infancy even though many people have been telling multi-platform stories for a long time. The crucial difference between transmedia storytelling and multiplatform storytelling is the attempt to create synergy between the content and a focus on an emotional, participatory experience for the audience. Simply throwing up a website for your TV show doesn’t make transmedia storytelling – especially if there’s no story – even if it might commonly be refer to as such" (Pratten, R., 2011).
Bibliography: Jenkins, H. (2006). 'Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide'. NYU Press. [academic source] [pdf] Pratten, R. (2011). 'Getting Started in Transmedia Storytelling. A Practical Guide for Beginners'. [pdf] Bulibasa, A.-L. (2023). "'In-Between Worlds': A Complex Transmedia Universe about Myths, Creatures and Traditions"." Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Dramatica 68: 141–157. [academic source] Longo, M. (2021, August 25). "Il Transmedia Storytelling e lo sfruttamento del media franchise". Marketing Espresso. https://blog.marketing-espresso.com/il-transmedia-storytelling-e-lo-sfruttamento-del-media-franchise/ [commentary] Moloney, K. (2011). 'Where Journalism Has Gone Before'. Transmedia Journalism. Available at: https://transmediajournalism.org/contexts/where-journalism-has-gone-before/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2026].

lonelygirl15: YouTube's first viral sensation/fakery
Background: "In June 2006, a 16-year-old girl began a video blog on YouTube. [folksonomy] Her name was Bree, she'd been lurking in the burgeoning community for a while. She was a self-described dork, she thought her hometown was really boring – 'Maybe that's why I spend so much time on my computer …' Bree was one of a slowly-growing community on YouTube of confessional video bloggers. They poured their lives into their webcams, not yet an automatic feature on laptops as they are today. Their follower bases grew slowly but steadily, with regular, and often grainy, videos about their day-to-day lives. They were largely ignored by the mainstream media, who at the time dismissed YouTube as just a repository for cat videos. Lonelygirl15 [channel] [Wikipedia] [imdb] changed all that. Her followers quickly ballooned and she became one of the young site's most popular stars. The New York Times had a recurring blog about her. She had her own forum. Hundreds of people wanted to be her friend on Myspace. [Wikipedia] The thing is, Bree wasn't real. Lonelygirl15 actually had a small team of writers. Bree and her best friend Daniel were played by actors. YouTubers and the media had been duped. Yet this was no mere flash in the pan hoax – this was YouTube's first web series. This was the first time someone proved you could actually make money on YouTube" (Cresci, E., 2016).
More: Danielbeast' To Hell With Bree's Dad (yeah!): https://www.youtube.com/embed/b0k_khs02Dw Press: https://www.youtube.com/embed/KnRM_UMufTQ?start=3
Discussion: "What spreads through a social network is all too often attributed to two largely uncontested logics of resemblance and repetition. First, cultural contagion is assumed to correspond to a distinctive biologically determined unit of imitation (the meme). This is unquestionably a mechanistic virality analogically compared to the canonical imprint of genetic code. Second, what spreads is said to occur in a representational space of collective contamination in which individual persons who become part of a crowd tend toward thinking in the same mental images (real and imagined). Like this, the reasoned individual is seemingly overpowered by a neurotic mental state of unity unique to the crowd, which renders subjectivity vulnerable to further symbolic contagious encounters and entrainments. ... As becomes apparent in Virality, Milgram's impact on the new network sciences approach to contagion has been considerable. Not only has his work greatly influenced the models used but his ideas figure writ large in the stress given to an individual's instinctual tendency to herd or cascade, particularly in times of bubble building and subsequent financial crisis but also during the spreading of fashion and fads. In many of these accounts, imitative decisions (rationale or irrational) conforming to the social actions of others are assumed to be biologically hardwired into the brain, enabling a person to make snap judgments to avoid, for example, threats to her physical, emotional, or financial well-being. Notably, even when using online systems like e-mail, it is argued that 'the human brain is hardwired with the proclivity to follow the lead of others'" (Sampson, T., 2012).
Bibliography: Cresci, E. (2016, June 16). 'Lonelygirl15: how one mysterious vlogger changed the internet'. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/16/lonelygirl15-bree-video-blog-youtube Falconer, E. (2016, June 16). 'An oral history of lonelygirl15'. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/374034/an-oral-history-of-lonelygirl15 Sampson, T. (2012, October 5). 'Images from Virality – future project with artists at UEL'. VIRALITY. https://viralcontagion.blog/2012/10/05/images-from-virality-future-project-with-artists-at-uel/

Evgeny Morozov 'The Internet in Society' (2011)
Quote: "Foreign policy can never be the same again — and it's all because of the internet, Gordon Brown [Wikipedia] said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. Referring to the so-called Twitter revolution in Iran, [Wikipedia] the prime minister said technological advances and the democratisation of information mean 'foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites'. 'You cannot have Rwanda [Wikipedia] again,' he said. 'This week's events in Iran are a reminder of the way that people are using new technology to come together in new ways to make their views known.' He described the internet era as 'more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution'. 'For centuries, individuals have been learning how to live with their next-door neighbours,' he added. 'Now, uniquely, we're having to learn to live with people who we don't know. 'People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents, to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you've got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world.'" (Viner, K., 2009).
Concept: 'Arab Spring' [Wikipedia]
Concept: Cyber-utopianism [Wikipedia]
Related: "The new media are viewed as being the answer to humanity’s problems; they will create the perfect society. Viewing technical innovations in this manner is not new, as Marvin (1988) has demonstrated. Utopic visions have long accompanied technological evolution. ‘Utopia’ was the imaginary island envisioned by Thomas More in the 1500s. Its inhabitants had created an earthly paradise by adhering to a pious life and a communal spirit as well as to technical pursuit. In the following centuries, the Enlightenment gave rise to the notion of utopia that could be attained through continual technological and social development" (Karim, K. H., 2001, p.118).
Bibliography: 'Evgeny Morozov: The Internet in Society'. (2025, March 13). RSA Animate. https://www.thersa.org/videos/rsa-animate-the-internet-in-society/ [Wikipedia] Viner, K. (2009, June 19). 'Internet has changed foreign policy for ever, says Gordon Brown'. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/19/gordon-brown-internet-foreign-policy Karim, K. H. (2001). "Cyber-Utopia and the Myth of Paradise: Using Jacques Ellul's Work on Propaganda to Analyse Information Society Rhetoric." Information, Communication & Society 4(1): 113–134. [academic source] [academic source] [pdf] Marvin, C. (1988) 'When Old Technologies Were New', Oxford: Oxford University Press. [pdf]

Sherry Turkle (2011). 'Alone Together'
Context: This talk by Sherry Turkle [Wikipedia] "was recorded at TEDxUIUC 2011 (02/19/11), which was organized at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by a group of students led by Cristian Mitreanu". https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/922
Transcript: "Often we are too busy communicating to think. Too busy communicating to create, too busy communicating to really connect with the people we're with in the ways that would really count. In continual contact, we're alone together. To paraphrase Thoreau, [Wikipedia] where do we live and what do we live for in our new tethered lives or in other words, what do we have, now that we have what we say we want, now that we have what technology makes easy? In corporations, among circles of teenage and adult friends, within academic departments, people readily admit that they would rather text or send an email than talk face to face. Some who say I live my life on my Blackberry, are forthright about avoiding real-time commitment of a phone call. When you text, one young man says, you have more time to think about what you're writing on the telephone too much might show. Here we use technology to dial down human contact and there's that Goldilocks thing. To titrate it's nature and extent. People are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people, whom they also keep at bay. And we confront a paradox. We insist that our world is increasingly complex yet we've created a communication's culture that has decreased the time available for us to sit and think, uninterrupted we've ramp up the volume and velocity of communication but we start to expect fast answers. And in order to get them we ask each other simpler questions, we start to dumb down our communication, even on the most important matters. Shakespeare might have said, we are consumed with that which we are nourished by. This flood of connection affects the development of the self in many ways, here I am just going to mention one of them. Let's call it, I share therefore I am. For so many I have studied, things go from I have a feeling, I want to make a call, to I want to have a feeling, I need to send a text. In other words the validation of a feeling becomes part of establishing it. More than this, what is not being cultivated is the ability to be alone. To gather oneself, there is a great psychological truth. If we don't teach our children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely. For adult and child having gotten into the habit of constant connection, we risk losing our capacity for the kind of solitude that energises and that restores."
Criticism: As Susan Greenfield [Wikipedia] explains "When we of the 20th century read a book, most usually the author takes you by the hand and you travel from the beginning to the middle to the end in a continuous narrative series of interconnected steps. It may not be a journey with which you agree or that you enjoy, but none the less as you turn the pages one train of thought succeeds the last in a logical fashion. We can then of course compare one narrative with another. In so doing we start to build up a conceptual framework that enables us to evaluate further journeys, which in turn will influence our individualised framework. One might argue that this is the basis of education – education as we know it. It is the building up of a personalised conceptual framework, where we can relate incoming information to what we know already. We can place an isolated fact in a context that gives it significance. Traditional education has enabled us, if you like, to turn information into knowledge. Now imagine that there is no robust conceptual framework. Imagine that you are sitting in front of a multimedia presentation where you are unable, because you have not had the experience of many different intellectual journeys, to evaluate what is flashing up on the screen. The most immediate reaction instead would be to place a premium on the most obvious feature, the immediate sensory content – we could call it the 'yuk' or 'wow' factor. You would be having an experience rather than learning. Here sounds and sights of a fast–paced, fast–moving, multimedia presentation would displace any time for reflection or any idiosyncratic or imaginative connections that we might make as we turn the pages and then stare at the wall to reflect" (House of Lords debates, 20 April 2006, 3:18 pm : Column 1220).
Note: that in making her point, Greenfield cites Kevin Kelly i.e. https://newpractices.co.uk/Horizons/#yDYCf4ONh5M
Bibliography: Turkle, S. (2011). 'Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other'. New York, NY, Basic Books. [pdf] Wintour, P. (2009, February 24). "Facebook et al risk 'infantilising' the human mind". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/feb/24/social-networking-site-changing-childrens-brains Lords Hansard. (2026). 'Lords Hansard text for 20 Apr 2006 (60420-18)'. Parliament.uk. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo060420/text/60420-18.htm#60420-18_spnew3 [folksonomy]

Tech Policy Press: 'How to Become an Algorithmic Problem' (2026)
Transcript: José Marichal [academic source] "I think the first class started in 2008 back in the very optimistic days of Clay Shirky [see] and Henry Jenkins [see] and Larry Lessig [Wikipedia] and all these books and Yochai Benkler [Wikipedia] and all these books that that came out on the 'long tail' [Wikipedia] all these things... all the positive benefits that that the Internet culture was going to bring to democracy and and I think I shared that initially. I think I have a mentality of being an early adopter and somebody like right now, I'm torn between my disdain for tech oligarchs and my fascination with AI as a tool." https://www.youtube.com/embed/vvjvXpvkZdM?start=166
Bibliography: Marichal, J. (2025). "You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem". [online] Bristol University Press. doi:[academic source]. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/you-must-become-an-algorithmic-problem Broniatowski, D.A. and Simons, J. (2026). 'A Building Code for Digital Infrastructures'. Tech Policy Press. [online] 16 Mar. Available at: https://www.techpolicy.press/a-building-code-for-digital-infrastructures/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2026].

BBC News: The Internet Archive saving our digital history
Consider (Simon): The unit understands digital as a cultural phenomenon which is understood either from a personal perspective or a perspective of being a member of a group (social, cultural). Therefore, it is about how we engage engage with such a phenomenon and the constraints which are imposed by such a phenomenon and the infrastructure and means. In this sense it is the embeddedness of such a such a phenomenon and how through our engagement it imposes limitations and enables existing practices.
Point: Internet Archive [Wikipedia] [site archive]
Point: Archive.today: [Wikipedia] [digital archives]
Point: Project Gutenberg [Wikipedia] [eBook] Aby Warburg [Wikipedia] https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/about-us 'object based art'
More: Medien Kunst Netz http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/credits/ GeoCities [Wikipedia] https://geocities.restorativland.org/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/HeXVKrtecis?start=20
Point: Aby Warburg [folksonomy] [folksonomy]
Bibliography: Iosifyan, M. and J. Wolfe (2023). "Everyday Life vs Art: Effects of Framing on the Mode of Object Interpretation." Empirical Studies of the Arts 42(1): 166–191. [academic source] [academic source]

Jen Golbeck (2013). 'recommender systems'

Google AdSense for YouTube ‘creators’

'the attention arbitrage strategy'
Related: James Williams discusses the concept of the 'attention economy' https://newpractices.co.uk/Horizons/#xxyRf3hfRXg