Digital life

Digital life

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free. Today, the British computer scientist's creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended. In Australia to promote his book, This is for Everyone, Berners-Lee is reflecting on what his invention has become and how he and a community of collaborators can put the power of the web back into the hands of its users.

I arrived at 6:45 pm that Monday evening at a nondescript office block in Dalston, a recently gentrified area of East London. I was greeted at the door by the event host, who was wearing a T-shirt that read, "The Offline Club." I handed them my phone, which they stowed in a specially built cabinet-a sort of shrunken-down capsule hotel. The entryway opened into a narrow room with high concrete walls painted white, with space enough for about 40 people to sit.

Whenever there's a spare minute, your first instinct is to reach for your phone and scroll. But what if you didn't? Experts confirm the benefits of this new take on old ways to pass time

You settle in for a quick scroll through your feed, maybe just to unwind for a minute or two. But somewhere between a cooking hack and a clip you've already forgotten, forty minutes vanished. It's all a blur. Welcome to the era of infinite content and finite attention, where our brains are working overtime just to keep up with the deluge.

A surprise snow day turns the studio into a ghost town and sends everyone straight back to 2020.

The internet you experience daily-endless scrolling, algorithmic feeds serving content you didn't ask for, AI-generated slop clogging search results-isn't the only internet available. It's just the one that's easiest to stumble into. You're not stuck with the internet that has evolved alongside the rise of hegemonic platforms. We're 20-plus years into the social internet, and the winners of the last round of audience capture have made clear they're shifting to optimize for social broadcasting instead of networking, to maximize market share and market cap.

Pablo Sanchez, a manager of the moving company ServiMoving , noticed something strange online: a one-star review on their Google Maps page. We checked with the team to find out what had happened, which customer was unhappy, he explained to EL PAIS. A little while later, another one appeared, then another we started to get alarmed, he added. They quickly realized that the reviews weren't being written by real customers. We were baffled, he sighed. Shortly after, they found out what was really going on.

Before Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok became the giants of our digital lives, there was a vast ecosystem of social media platforms that once defined how people connected online. From odd niche communities to networks that shaped the idea of sharing and socializing on the web, these platforms were innovators in their time, only to fade into obscurity as trends shifted and technology evolved.

Evidence has been growing steadily that social media as we have known it in the past - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even TikTok - is not growing at anything like the pace it did before, and in some cases is already shrinking. The Financial Times recently reported that a study it commissioned - an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries - found social media use peaked in 2022 and has since gone into steady decline.

Before I've poured my first morning coffee I've already watched the lives of strangers unfold on Instagram, checked the headlines, responded to texts, swiped through some matches on a dating app, and refreshed my emails, twice. I check Apple Maps for my quickest route to work. I've usually left it too late to get the bus, so I rent a Lime bike using the app.

You can find them anywhere there are people and inclines: train platforms, gyms, grocery stores. They come in different shapes and sizes, they represent every age and demographic, but they all move in the exact same way - slow-motion shuffle, scroll, lift foot, poke screen, land foot, repeat. The worst ones get to the top (or bottom) of the stairs and suddenly stop. This would be justifiable if they received notification of a nuclear warhead careening towards the city. But it's usually just a Slack they have to read extra carefully.

Indeed, Meta says that various legal cases in this area have " selectively cited Meta's internal documents to construct a misleading narrative," which suggests that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have harmed teens, and that Meta has prioritized growth over their well-being.

Santa Teresa on Costa Rica's Pacific coast is a favorite among surfers and traveling professionals because of its long beaches and relaxed atmosphere. The town offers several coworking spaces and cafés with reliable internet, which makes remote work easier. The area is accessible via Tambor Airport with onward road and ferry connections to larger cities. Accommodation prices range from budget hostels to luxury villas. The local community is international, and the abundance of healthy restaurants and yoga studios contributes to a comfortable and productive stay.

Instagram is testing out new tweaks that emphasize friends. It also has a new definition of friends: People who mutually follow each other. The Instagram test involves changing a user's "following" count on a profile to a "friends" count. That means if you follow thousands of people, but maybe only a few hundred of those people follow you back, that'll show up as your "friends" count.

This week, our winning comment comes from @Roguelike, who was brave enough to declare that the term "hard launch" and, by association, "soft launch," is dumb. They commented on "After 3 Years Together, Timothée Chalamet Kind of Soft Launches Kylie Jenner on Instagram." I'm glad I'm finally an old, because the phrase "hard launch" is dumb, and while I know what it means, it's a dumb phrase that means nothing, and it's nothing words. Just like this entire comment.

In documents recently uncovered by The New York Times, Facebook demonstrated why losing the attention of younger teen users was one of the biggest threats facing the business. "If we lose the teen foothold in the US we lose the pipeline," reads the internal memo from last October. It seems Facebook had hoped Instagram would engage early high school users (aged 13-15) in a bid to replenish Facebook's aging user base.

The world has been racing toward a more digital-first existence for some time now, and many believe we're actually most of the way there already. One of the key components of that existence is a digital financial system, but Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have already shown us that the concept is certainly viable. Like it or not, the world is shifting in a more digitized direction, whether we like it or not.