Social Networking

Instagram is now a (photo) information network.

Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

It is no secret that I love fountain pens, and that’s why I get excited about events such as the Manila Pen Show, which is the brainchild of a longtime friend and an admirable blogger, Leigh Reyes. She doesn’t blog much, but she posts everything she used to do on Instagram. And why not — she paints with ink and does calligraphy. She lets the ink do the talking, and her artwork scintillates the mind. These expressions of creativity are made for photos and videos.

When I went to see the Manila Pen Show’s website, every single one of the exhibitors was linked not to their website but to Instagram. These included some of the more traditional and sedate pen-makers from Japan. Earlier this morning, when reading Die Workwear’s piece about shirts, I realized that almost all the bespoke shirt makers, shoemakers, and others announce their

Continue reading...Continue reading Instagram is now a (photo) information network.

Photography, Technology
10 comments

Post(news) Script

Post.News, a Twitter-like news-first social network, is shutting down. It is not surprising. It lacked dynamism and excitement, even as an early adopter and a former media professional. Given the overwhelming emphasis they put on establishment media, I am not surprised. The last time I visited Post.News was to read founder Noah Bardin’s post. “Our service is not growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform,” he noted. 

It is not just Post.News. Many Twitter-like social platforms such as Mastodon, Blue Sky, and Threads got out of the gates fast but eventually slowed down. When Threads launched, I pointed out, “The days of getting a social network to grow by importing an address book are gone — instead, it is about using, reusing, and using the social graph again to launch new products.” 

Threads seems to be the only one with staying power because it is being bootstrapped by Instagram’s social graph. Of the lot, it would be interesting to see how much bigger it can get — it

Continue reading...Continue reading Post(news) Script

Technology
4 comments

I’m AirChatting

There have been multiple attempts to create a new social network that tries to mimic Twitter as a short-text-oriented real-time platform ever since Twitter (nee X) started to fray. Mastodon is the choice of the proponents of the Indie web; BlueSky, a network promoted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and Warpcast, which has its roots in the decentralized web ethos. Facebook’s Instagram introduced Threads and so far has emerged as a real option for those who are tired of Twitter’s increasing presence of bots, spam, and degradation of quality. 

However, a new option emerged this past week, which not only improves the current options but also charts a brand new course for itself. In doing so, it is showing how software and services will evolve in the age of “AI.” I have not been this excited about a social app in so long as I am about the newly re-launched AirChat. It is the brainchild of old Silicon Valley hands, Naval Ravikant and Brian Norgard. Naval, most recently the co-founder of AngelList, andNorgard, the former chief product officer

Continue reading...Continue reading I’m AirChatting

Technology
2 comments

Social Internet Is Dead. Get Over It.

**

The New Yorker

The social-media Web as we knew it, a place where we consumed the posts of our fellow-humans and posted in return, appears to be over.…In large part, this is because a handful of giant social networks have taken over the open space of the Internet, centralizing and homogenizing our experiences through their own opaque and shifting content-sorting systems.

The Atlantic

Algorithms optimized for engagement shape what we see on social media and can goad us into participation by showing us things that are likely to provoke strong emotional responses. But although we know that all of this is happening in aggregate, it’s hard to know specifically how large technology companies exert their influence over our lives.

Bloomberg

The moment exposes the tension between how social networks wish people used their services and the reality … Asking users to unlearn the habit of relying on social media will take

Continue reading...Continue reading Social Internet Is Dead. Get Over It.

My Essays, Technology
11 comments

Conflict Culture is making social Unsocial

people gathering on street during nighttime
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

This past week social media became a battleground for yet another death match between media and Silicon Valley. So much has been said, so I am going to abstain from adding any more to the mix. However, all that sound and fury took me down the memory lane — all the way back to the early nineties. 

Back then, I was a person with a limited amount of social connections in my newly adopted home. So, I often turn to television for distraction, especially during the day, when waiting for folks to call me back. It was then I came across the disgustingly distorted world of Jerry Springer, Montel, and Maury. These shows were and are still produced for a singular purpose — conflict as a source of entertainment and distraction. 

I quickly moved on from the moronity and swore off what can be called

Continue reading...Continue reading Conflict Culture is making social Unsocial

Technology
0 comments

The Long Fall of Google+

Did you know that Google+ is shutting down? I hadn’t, and frankly, I don’t care, because I had stopped thinking about Google+ a long time ago. But Gideon Rosenblatt, who was an early adopter of Google+ cares deeply, and he wrote his synthesis of what went wrong with Google+. It is worth reading, as it is frank and very revelatory. Apathy, mismanagement, and a lack of clear vision perhaps would be my core causes — however, for me, the heavy-handed way I was forced into Google+ is what turned me off the service.

….changes in management resulted in numerous twists and turns in Google+ strategy that, much like the layers of an archeological dig, are still visible today in the user interface. All this turmoil simply leaked the life out of the network. Employees with a strong vision and passion for the service eventually left and over time, many of

Continue reading...Continue reading The Long Fall of Google+

Musings
0 comments

What I am reading today

Musings
1 comments

What I am reading today

Paris2013-012.jpg

Musings
0 comments