Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism Degree of recognition International Media name/outlet Petitpoi Media type Radio Duration/Length/Size 56 minutes, 13 seconds Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 16/12/22 Description Why is the internet making us so unhappy? Why is it in capital’s interests to cultivate populations that are depressed and desperate rather than driven by the same irrational exuberance that moves money?
Sadness is now a design problem. The highs and lows of melancholy are coded into social media platforms. After all the clicking, browsing, swiping and liking, all we are left with is the flat and empty aftermath of time lost to the app.
Sad by Design by Geert Lovink offers a critical analysis of the controversies which drive our online media behaviours. Lovink calls for us to embrace the engineered intimacy of social media, messenger apps and selfies because boredom is the first stage of overcoming ‘platform nihilism’.
Geert Lovink speaks to Pierre d’Alancaisez about the frustrations of studying the internet as it evolves from networks to platforms, the politically-contingent notions of online ‘communities’, and cycles of ideological production and capture.Producer/Author Pierre d'Alancaisez Persons Geert Lovink