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[DE<\/a>]<\/p>\n “Six years was a long time to be in jail, but it\u2019s an entire era online. Writing<\/a> on the internet itself had not changed, but reading<\/em><\/a> \u2014\u200aor, at least, getting things read\u200a\u2014\u200ahad altered dramatically. …<\/p>\n Blogs were gold <\/span>and bloggers were rock stars back in 2008 when I was arrested. … People used to carefully read my posts and leave lots of relevant comments, and even many of those who strongly disagreed with me still came to read. Other blogs linked to mine to discuss<\/a> what I was saying. I felt like a king. …<\/p>\n The hyperlink was a way to abandon centralization\u200a\u2014\u200aall the links, lines and hierarchies\u200a\u2014\u200aand replace them with something more distributed, a system of nodes and networks. Blogs gave form to that spirit of decentralization: They were windows<\/em> into lives<\/a> you\u2019d rarely know much about; bridges<\/em> that connected different lives to each other and thereby changed them. …<\/p>\n Since I got out of jail, though, I\u2019ve realized how much the hyperlink has been devalued, almost made obsolete.<\/p>\n Nearly every social network now treats a link as just the same as it treats any other object\u200a\u2014\u200athe same as a photo, or a piece of text\u200a\u2014\u200ainstead of seeing it as a way to make that text richer. You\u2019re encouraged to post one single hyperlink and expose it to a quasi-democratic process of liking and plussing and hearting: Adding several links to a piece of text is usually not allowed. Hyperlinks are objectivized, isolated, stripped of their powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the same time, these social networks<\/a> tend to treat native text and pictures\u200a\u2014\u200athings that are directly posted to them\u200a\u2014\u200awith a lot more respect than those that reside on outside web pages. One photographer friend explained to me how the images he uploads directly to Facebook receive a large number of likes, which in turn means they appear more on other people\u2019s news feeds. On the other hand, when he posts a link to the same picture somewhere outside Facebook\u200a\u2014\u200ahis now-dusty blog, for instance\u200a\u2014\u200athe images are much less visible to Facebook itself, and therefore get far fewer likes. …<\/p>\n Apps like Instagram are blind\u200a\u2014\u200aor almost blind. Their gaze goes nowhere except inwards, reluctant to transfer any of their vast powers to others, leading them into quiet deaths. The consequence is that web pages outside social media are dying. …<\/p>\n Fewer users are directly checking dedicated webpages, instead getting fed by a never-ending flow of information that\u2019s picked for them by complex \u2013and secretive\u200a\u2014\u200aalgorithms. The Stream means you don\u2019t need to open so many websites any more. You don\u2019t need numerous tabs. You don\u2019t even need a web browser. You open Twitter or Facebook on your smartphone and dive deep in. The mountain has come to you. Algorithms have picked everything for you. …<\/p>\n Here\u2019s no question<\/span> to me that the diversity<\/a> of themes and opinions<\/a> is less online today than it was in the past. New, different, and challenging ideas get suppressed by today\u2019s social networks because their ranking strategies prioritize the popular and habitual. … But diversity is being reduced in other ways, and for other purposes.<\/p>\n Some of it is visual. Yes, it is true that all my posts on Twitter and Facebook look something similar to a personal blog … But I have very little control over how it looks like; I can\u2019t personalize it much. …<\/p>\n The centralization of information also worries me because it makes it easier for things to disappear. … What if my account on Facebook or Twitter is shut down for any reason? …<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s that text itself is disappearing. After all, the first visitors to the web spent their time online reading web magazines. Then came blogs, then Facebook, then Twitter. Now it\u2019s Facebook videos and Instagram and SnapChat that most people spend their time<\/a> on. There\u2019s less and less text to read on social networks, and more and more video to watch, more and more images to look at. Are we witnessing a decline of reading on the web in favor of watching and listening?<\/p>\n The web was not envisioned as a form of television when it was invented. But, like it or not, it is rapidly resembling TV: linear, passive, programmed and inward-looking. … <\/span> aus: Hossein Derakhshan<\/span>:<\/strong> The Web We Have to Save.<\/a> Medium.com, 14.07.2015<\/p>\n
\nIn the past, the web was powerful and serious enough to land me in jail. Today it feels like little more than entertainment. …”<\/p>\n