From context collapse to content collapse (2020) | Hacker News Reader

From context collapse to content collapse (2020)

roughtype.com

77 pointspmlnr15 comments

That part about information being condensed down into a tiny form factor (a smartphone screen) hits hard as a frontend web developer:

> The diminutive size of the device’s screen further compacted all forms of information. The instant notifications and infinite scrolls that became the phone’s default design standards required that all information be rendered in a way that could be taken in at a glance, further blurring the old distinctions between types of content.

I've really struggled with this concept when building out apps and tools that have to fit in the form factor of a smartphone. Some things are just too complicated or too nuanced to express with little buttons on a little screen.

Sometimes it's an interesting constraint to work within, but more often than not I feel like I'm leaving so much on the table when it comes to functionality and usability.

I too feel this deeply. Sometimes I think our phones have given much more power to the companies that have the algorithms, since there is less space for anything, which means companies that can create a good touchscreen keyboard, or a search bar, etc are the ones who win, not the ones who build a deeper experience. Everything is hidden away from us.

I also sometimes think that this is another reason our phones are making us dumber and more fragile. We have become used to having everything done for us.

>Our phones are making us dumber I never really liked this very generalized take. My phone has been amazing for learning how to fix things (and typically quickly). That would’ve never happened if I needed hard copy manuals/books (which almost no one ever has around when they need it). I am able to find many quality media sources that offer different levels of quality and perspectives, as opposed to just keeping cable news on all day to tell me what to think and feel, all curated by one entity. I learned how to search and identify results I need or want, which is a skill in and of itself.

Phones do not simply make us dumber. They make some things harder, some things easier, and of course, require responsibility on our part.

I absolutely love this constraint and I believe this is where all the complexity of frontend derives from. When I hear someone believe that frontend is easy, which nowadays is not as common, I always think yeah maybe on an infinite-dimensional canvas it's easy. It definitely can feel like I have to leave something on the table but the real trick is understanding which pieces of functionality are okay to leave out. :)

You’re really articulating something I’m having a hard time articulating myself. I think it’s why I’ve been gravitating towards audiobooks, podcasts, media services that offer their articles as audio, etc. I have always used audio as a major point for information, but I’ve been really turning to it lately for anything of substance.

As someone with ADHD multitasking is in my blood (obviously this is different for everyone but that’s how mine often manifests). The digital age is in some ways incredible for someone like me, because I am able to pick up things that fall through the cracks at speeds I could never do previously. Search functions are my lifeblood. But as you’re discussing, it’s hard to distinguish between different sorts of content now, which is very important for someone like me. I need to kind of know what I am signing up for, and I don’t need everything to be designed for speed reading or quick glances.

Audio formats don’t really fall into this problem. They are the links they are, and it is right in front of you. It is a known, concrete quality. The only thing you can do is change the speed at which it plays back, which is an entirely different thing. I don’t know maybe I’m a little off base here, but something about what you wrote just made me think about that and really click into place why I’ve been listening to so much audio contact and reading so much less. I need to fire up my kindle paper white a little probably.

I 'm surprised sociologists would take Zuck's words seriously. I ve watched him in interviews and in his own podcasts and he doesn't sound like having any kind of sophisticated worldview. The 'context collapse' more likely has to do with the fact that, from an algorithmic point of view, all news fit in the same data format, and nobody cared to introduce context. Or they introduced it in a wrong way (like Google+ did with circles). In the end, context reappeared in the form of separate social networks (linkedin, slack, twitter etc) so it s probably all good

I think he enjoys living in his own bubble and justifies to himself that his work is important. It takes a massive ego to convince oneself that they can do no wrong

I think you might mean 'content collapse' here instead of 'context collapse'? They're both terribly clunky terms, but the article defines the former as the homogenisation of all content due to it sharing the same screen.

'Context collapse' I understand as the merging of our pre-online identities (who you were in various contexts) into one authoritative identity due to ubiquitous social networks.

> I'm surprised sociologists would take Zuck's words seriously. I ve watched him in interviews and in his own podcasts and he doesn't sound like having any kind of sophisticated worldview.

Of course they take him seriously, just not as an analyst or scholar, but as a sort of random force of nature whose utterances and whims inform the actions of the people most directly shaping the system through which so much social interaction is now mediated.

I don't know if any of the FAANGs allow outside sociologists, linguists, and anthropologists to study them as organizations or societies (as opposed to merely giving access to their platform in order to study users), but it would be fascinating to get that kind of glimpse of how things really work and change over time.

- context collapse: different personal identities collapse onto one social media

- content collapse: different mediums (tv, radio, newspaper) collapse onto a feed

- reality collapse: different forms of content, fictional or real collapse onto a single stream: propaganda, marvel universe, GPT-3, Dall-E, etc.

Could be a nice sci-fi theme.

A nice sci-fi theme sure, but one of the the worst choices possible to build a resilient society.

> propaganda, marvel universe

You can sort of see that in the memes that compare Putin with several (malefic) characters from teen movies/TV shows/books, Voldemort being the most popular afaik.

Continuity collapse? You are not just in the MCU, but of every AU fanfiction of it ever written, at the same time.

I think startups taking over the world was a very dangerous and naive idea. We have essentially created singular points of failure. I wonder if globalization is similar in that it can make our system more fragile.

There has to be some sort of balance. There is good and bad in globalization. Good and bad in having only 1 or 2 companies that control the entire world.

Can you imagine if every single person in the world spoke the same language and had the same cultures? Maybe then there would be even greater homogeny.

previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23732384

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