Digital Cultures

Check out these two recent articles exploring the influence of 4chan’s “shitposting” on internet culture and politics.

In a Wired article, Ryan Broderick examines the pervasive influence of 4chan-like sites on the mainstream internet. My main memory of the site is my friends using its random posts to view shocking, often sexually explicit and racist content, which I felt was affecting their views. His refresher on 4chan’s functionality was helpful:

4chan users were anonymous, threads weren’t permanent and would time out or “404” after a period of inactivity, and there were dozens of sub-boards you could post to. That unique combination of ephemerality, anonymity, and organized chaos proved to be a potent mix, immediately creating a race-to-the-bottom gutter culture unlike anything else on the web. The dark end point of the techno-utopianism that built the internet. On 4chan you were no one, and nothing you did mattered unless it was so shocking, so repulsive, so hateful that someone else noticed and decided to screenshot it before it disappeared into the digital ether.

Charlie Warzel’s article in The Atlantic discusses the current US administration’s and the official White House X account’s use of cruel shitposting content as a political tool:

[T]he White House account manages to perfectly capture the sociopathic, fascistic tone of ironic detachment and glee of the internet’s darkest corners and most malignant trolls. The official X account of the White House isn’t just full of low-rent 4chan musings, it’s an alarming signal of an administration that’s fluent in internet extremism and seemingly dedicated to pursuing its casual cruelty as a chief political export.

The US administration’s dehumanization of migrants exemplifies how shitposting’s strategy of maximizing reactions while minimizing effort can undermine serious conversations.

As of today, March 5, 2025, Microsoft has shut down Skype. I honestly thought Teams had already replaced it years ago. Still, reading the news made me nostalgic about how I, my friends, family, and colleagues once used Skype.

• I think my father was the one who first introduced Skype to our home as a cheaper way to make international calls from Belgium to our family’s landline in Germany. Back then, even calls within Europe were expensive, so this was pretty groundbreaking. But, I don’t remember us using it that much—probably because you had to sit behind a computer to make a call, and I vaguely recall some annoying echo issues.
• For a long time, Skype, for me, was a quirky but functional option for video and voice calls. I remember having some job interviews on Skype, but one awkward part was finding people. You couldn’t just use an email—you needed to know someone’s Skype nickname. Many people, as a workaround, added their Skype ID to their email signatures. Later, at the university where I worked, we used Skype for Business, which at least made it easier to connect with colleagues.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, my friends and I used Skype for a while to play online board games via Board Game Arena. But before long, Zoom became the go-to platform thanks to its smoother experience and better features. For work, however, Zoom didn’t last long—Microsoft Teams quickly took over, despite being clunkier. It won out mainly because it was tightly integrated with organizational tools.
• Furthermore, these changes are closely tied to technological advancements. Over the years, there has been a shift away from peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, which rely on a decentralized communication model where participants connect directly. However, these systems often struggle to scale effectively. This became evident once during an academic workshop that attempted to use the P2P-based platform BigBlueButton but quickly had to switch to Zoom. In contrast, modern applications leverage centralized servers or cloud infrastructure to enable to communication among participants.

I’m disgusted by the White House’s official account posting an ASMR video on deportations.

To better understand, let’s revisit sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s perspective on the Holocaust. His argument was that the Holocaust’s origins were in modernity itself, not only in the unique histories of Germany and the Jewish people.

Similarly, we should examine how contemporary techniques are being used. This case shows how social media’s tools are used to dehumanize and morally neutralize through ASMR, memes, and irony.

Via kottke.org.

A Tedium article by Ernie Smith reveals a potential connection between a technical Linux kernel coding issue and the influence of the creator economy on open-source development.

In this way, there may be a clash between established maintainers who have stable job situations, versus younger developers who focus on “monetizing” their roles as software developers.

Ars Technica has compiled a list of products and services that exemplify the worst examples of “enshittification”. The term, coined by Cory Doctorow, describes the common pattern of online products and services that start user-friendly but deteriorate due to the pursuit of profit.

To combat dropping user engagement on older social media platforms, it appears Meta/Facebook plans to add AI-generated users that will post AI-generated content. Below is a quote from an article in the Financial Times:

“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going,” he added.

A social network for interacting with bots, called SocialAI, already exists. However, on a platform where both function concurrently, differentiating between them will likely become increasingly difficult. In the end, a stale, lifeless feeling already pervades the internet. Drowning in information overload, perhaps only bots will survive, quietly processing through the digital debris.

A new video from Le dessous des images discusses “micro-dramas,” short (1-2 minute) soap opera-style videos made for and shown on platforms such as Reelshorts. Webtoons also came to my mind; their monetization and distribution—short, cliffhanger-filled chapters, some locked unless paid for—are similar.

ARTE’s Le dessous des images released a video about the CrowdStrike-related IT outages in July 2024. This video traces the history of the “blue screens of death” in Windows and explores how it relates to larger themes present in speculative fiction.

The following video from “Le dessous des images” explores the popularity of cooking videos on platforms like TikTok. Those cooking videos offer a seductive experience with quick edits and a POV perspective. Furthermore, the video compares these new formats format by looking into the history of cooking shows on television. What crossed my mind was how those videos simplify the cooking process, making it seem easier for everyone. However, this approach also means that they omit many of the steps involved in cooking, especially in comparison to older educational cooking shows. One surprising example is the segment showcasing an old French show centred on rural cuisine, even showing the actual process of butchering a duck.

In this article, Ian Bogost discusses the introduction of email reactions and how they have evolved on the internet. As a user of dedicated email software (Thunderbird), I found it awkward when I first received a thumbs-up reply to an email. Although these reactions can be useful to indicate receipt of a message, I also agree with Bogost’s view that they can be futile and add work. Worse, it is often saddening when someone can’t respond more thoughtfully.

The arrival of reactions in our email, of all places, represents their final success and inevitable futility. Adding confetti to a Gmail conversation affirms that reactions underpin the internet—that online life has become reaction-driven in a deep sense. Much of what we make and share online is made or shared precisely in the hope of eliciting emoji. At this point, we’re so overrun with these attempts—with things to make us laugh or cry or throw confetti—that the very work of having a reaction may soon be obsolete.