By dint of scrolling, we have lost all context on the web

Last year, I carried out a survey on the ” doomscrolling “. It’s a concept I’m a bit wary of, because it smacks of the moral panics recurring in our online practices. The idea that we are prisoners of an infinite and depressing scroll nevertheless speaks to many people, and is anchored in a few concrete realities: the biases of our brains, the capitalism of attention that crosses many industries ( social networks, advertising, media) etc. At the time, there is one element that particularly marked me. Anthony Masure, design researcher specializing in digital interfacesexplained to me that we were gradually getting lost in the web.

Some concrete examples. The scroll bar, which has long served as a marker in the flood of information available online, does not exist on TikTok. The swipe gesture (present on Instagram or Snapchat stories, for example) removes the notion of top or bottom, and therefore of beginning or end. Entirely algorithmic newsfeeds, sometimes called ” for you », become generalized. The most pessimistic predict a web” rotten » automated content, and that traditional search engines will soon be outdated. Google is already worried competition from apps like Instagram and TikTok (very used by young Internet users to find a restaurant or their next reading) or ChatGPT. Need information? It will be enough to discuss with a robot which will give you an answer (potentially false) without the possibility of understanding his train of thought or of comparing it with other results.

We scroll unmarked in loops we don’t control

I thought back to that online context collapse last week, reading this article published by RollingStone. I learned there that on TikTok, Internet users “ were having fun (I purposely use quotes for lack of a better term, as I don’t think entertainment is their goal) to produce Anne Frank tribute videos. These contents are based on the usual grammar of TikTok: a neat soundtrack (example cited in the article: rolling in The Deep of Adele), well-edited film clips, a story that we are supposed to identify with. The result is terribly disturbing to our adult eyes. Anne Frank is not an influencer or a fictional character. It’s strange to reduce his story to a music video adorned with praying hands or broken heart emojis.

On the one hand, I think this phenomenon is nothing new. Since social networks have existed, we are embarrassed to stage sad things (remember the controversies around selfies during funerals). We also tend to doubt the good intentions of teenagers and to despise their practices, failing to understand them. The new subject, on the other hand, is the informational mess in which we get stuck. We scroll unmarked in loops we don’t control and posts that all look the same.

This system pretty much works when it comes to positive and fun content (although that raises other kinds of ethical questions). But what happens when we have to talk about serious things, nuanced things, real things, horrible things, violent things, things that deserve to be taken out of the box and taken the time to think about what you just watched? What is our role and our power (if we still have any) as spectators, spectators, actors and actresses in this system? Swipe, watch this girl talk to you about her personal trauma, swipe, here’s a person who sums up for you in one minute a complex news that deserves at least twenty, swipe, listen to Adele sing on Holocaust archive footage, swipe , a video of police violence, swipe, this snail is so famous that it is sponsored by Burberry, swipe again, again, again. The web has not gone mad. It has lost its context.

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The press review of the week

Feedback

Two years ago, Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) announced the suspension of Donald Trump from its platforms. He was then accused of having used his social media accounts to incite violence as part of the assault on the United States Capitol in January 2021. Last week, Meta finally lifted these sanctions, believing that the “ extreme and very unusual circumstances that had led to the suspension of the former US president had disappeared. More details at Numerama.

A manga of your own

On the occasion of the Angoulême Festival, The world met Akane Torikai, mangaka whose works directly address sexism and violence against women in Japan and elsewhere. A profile that stands out in the manga industry, as this nice portrait explains, to read here (article reserved for subscribers)

Kink

I was captivated by this article on KinkTok, the community of TikTok videographers dedicated to original sexual practices, in particular BDSM. This group faces the usual hazards of people who talk about sexuality online (abusive moderation, sexism, fatphobia, violent remarks, etc.), but also another issue that I had not identified: the misinformation that can push to unsafe practices. It is to be read (in English) at Mashable.

Hot girl for hire

This text dates from the beginning of January, but it struck me so much that I wanted to share it with you. The singer and podcaster Eliza McLamb recounts her year 2020 and her struggle to pay for her studies, which led her to accept a funny job: managing OnlyFans accounts (the platform is not directly cited, but we can guess it ) for other people. For months, she published sexy photos that were not hers, and especially maintained private discussions for money, under the identity of the women she represented. It’s a gripping text about the reality of sex work today, the underlying hatred of some men for women, and also online loneliness. It is to read (in English) here

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Something to read/watch/listen to/play

Like everyone else, I can’t take the month of January anymore. So I decided to deal with my gloom the same way I deal with my other problems: by nurturing an all-consuming passion for a new jigsaw puzzle. This time, the object of all my attention is called Down in Bermuda. It embodies an aviator who was lost for ten years in the terrible triangle of Bermuda, and who is now trying to return home. To do this, he will have to wander from island to island to solve puzzles, and face some moody monsters.

Despite his initial premise a priori a bit sad, Down in Bermuda has a vibe closer to a children’s cartoon than a big epic. But that’s not a bad thing at all! The goal is clearly for the player to relax for a few hours, thanks to rarely difficult puzzles (between the ” where is Charlie » and the puzzles of your childhood), humor that is never too heavy and graphics that are always adorable. I didn’t expect more. Sometimes you just need to throw bombs at an ugly sea serpent to wait until February.

Down in Bermuda, available on PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade

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