All posts tagged: Defective

Social media is a defective product

Social media is a defective product

Published by skeptic

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg exiting Los Angeles Superior Court in California Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images I just sat down to write, but before committing words to my document, I took out my phone to check my calendar. Then I got a chat notification from a friend, who sent me a link to some meme on Instagram. Might as well check it out. Beneath the post are a bunch of short videos queued up, algorithmically chosen to enchant me: one is about ravens in the Tower of London, another about Indonesian street food. I poke the raven one. Then another. I can scroll through these reels endlessly, and I do. The videos become increasingly disturbing and political. You know what comes next. When I look up at my computer again, nearly 45 minutes have passed. My day isn’t ruined, but I feel depressed and tired. Where did all that missing time go? How did Instagram suck me into watching hundreds of videos (not to mention dozens of ads), when all I wanted to do was …

Selling a Defective Dream | Zephyr Teachout

Selling a Defective Dream | Zephyr Teachout

Published by José Betancourt

I met Rick in February 2010 in central Florida while waiting to take a hang gliding lesson. Neither of us had flown before. He had just gotten a divorce. I had recently gotten a tenure-track job. We were both looking to mark a moment with something transcendent. Rick grabbed the tow ahead of me. A little plane dragged him along the grass, then up, up, two thousand feet. As he was descending, strapped to the lead instructor, he took his wedding ring out of his pocket and flung it thousands of feet down, in the general vicinity of an orange grove. We flew together often in those early years. I was a slow and nervous learner, whereas Rick (not his real name) quickly became an expert. He could follow a red-tailed hawk up into the dome right under the big clouds. The hang gliding ranch hired him for odd jobs. Between those, he worked security at a nearby shopping mall. He was a supportive and generous friend, if sometimes extravagant and moody. He loved to …