In this post, I will describe how the delivery of information and communication have changed during my life thus far, highlighting ways in which current "high tech" ways of doing things have empowered small groups of (technocratic) elites and the parties that pressure them to push their (socio-political) agendas while undermining the well-being of people who just want to build communities with their families and friends while having some fun.

The evolution of information delivery pipelines

As a millennial (born in 1992), I recall a time when Internet access was limited; it was a new and exciting "high tech" thing and having access to computers was a kind of status symbol. Zoomers—born and raised surrounded by Internet connected technologies—did not experience the transaction from the "pre-Internet" world to the "Digital Age" just as most millennials don't have the experiences that lead many Boomers to become globalism embracing hippies.

I think that overall, the expansion of the Internet (c.f. THE MATRIX) has led to a much more fragile world in the sense any one group's decisions can have hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuge consequences. Effectively, this means that propaganda is more effective and faster acting. Like a machine gun versus a hunting rifle. Frightening!

The reach of news

In the 20th century, people often got news through the "legacy media" in forms like:

• Newspapers
• Magazines (e.g. Time magazine)
• Broadcast media (television, radio)

These forms of "legacy media" are non-interactive in the sense that they don't have something like comments sections that give instant feedback. You could call into a talk show or something, but participating in things like this is not the default behavior of most listeners—most people lurk, actively observe but not contribute content.

Certainly, there was news everywhere even before my time—for instance in the 1980s, I imagine there were lots of TV broadcasts running in corporate break rooms, dentists' offices certainly had lots of magazines, super markets put tabloids near the front of the store.

Nonetheless, news media was not as pushy as it is now on the Internet. You could simply avert your gaze and look at something else; nowadays, getting rid of news, advertisements, etc. often takes some technical know-how and complex configuration—it is not something that can done instinctually with no training. The channels of information in which news is delivered are required for daily (urban) living: students must use web browsers to interact with their schools and complete assignments, many companies are moving towards electronic-only "paperwork", etc.

Nerd aside: This trend has invaded even privacy + free information concerned spaces. A recent-ish annoying thing is that the Firefox web browser pushed news stories onto their default home page—alienating nerds who had chosen firefox to avoid things like this that happen on browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge.

Social interactions

News sitting in web browsers is non-threatening enough. But what about wearing an advertisement on your forehead?

This is much of what is being normalized in what I will call corporate mediated communication, using communications technology (such as messenging apps) where corporate interests are pushed on the user. This is perhaps the biggest problem I am seeing with information technology today. One-on-one communication reaks of third party intervention!

Some context—besides face to face conversations, the pre-Internet channels for communication include:

• Phone calls (LAN line means ur mom could be eavesdropping)
• Letters/postcards (relatively long form; you have to pay money to send)
• Other solutions, e.g. leaving notes on the refrigerator,

None of these media feel particularly "corporate". Sure, you probably have to work with a company to get your phone line set up, but then after that, you are largely left alone—we'll assume nobody is tapping your wire for now, ha!

Not so with smartphones/apps and most (desktop) online experiences! I leave Candy Crush installed in Windows 10 so that when I open the Start menu, I can be reminded that I am in THE MATRIX. When you open your (smart)phone, unless you flipped a bunch of options, you are probably greeted by all sorts of news. Android pushes a lot of Google news and stuff at me.

Seeing these things, if only for an instant, colors our conversations. Google/Apple/etc. seizes a bit of our attention before we started chatting with our friends/family, listening to music, etc. We may think we aren't paying attention to these things, but the headlines and stuff stick—we get the sense that "the whole world is doing XYZ"... ...big corporations are determining the contexts of our conversations by setting mood lighting to their robo-desires.

Locked Down, Locked In

As people are having fewer face-to-face conversations (because they are not going out), more and more acts of communication ("conversations") are being carried out through corporate-mediated communications technologies.

Prevailing narratives such as "END OF WORLD", "TRUMP BAD", "CHINESE VIRUS", etc. infect people's thinking as tech companies troll our minds by constantly telling us what to think about.

If you open a tool box, your hammer may suggest hitting nails to you, but that is about it. A piano sitting in your living room may suggest "you should practice", but it doesn't say "think about XYZ; should we do military intervention?!".

Having made some conscious decisions about how I set up my tech, I am relatively well off standing back and analyzing what's going on with the news and stuff. But I don't expect this of most people—especially if they are busy doing important work like saving people as medical workers or keeping our (already crumbling) infrastructure from totally collapsing.

My current attitude is to low-key hate smartphones specifically, but a lot of the "information ecosystem" more broadly, and avoid invasive technologies most of the time. Nonetheless, I recognize that these technologies are ubiquitous things and that I can't get away with not using one (at least until I have a family of my own, some land, etc). I was born and raised in THE MATRIX and I must do my part to help those still in it. So I am doing things like this... writing blog posts to share my thoughts to hopefully help at least some people see what is going on with information delivery and then make better informed decisions about things rather than accept the terrible "default settings" which we are naively handed.