“For example, instead of being asked to write an article, suddenly editors wanted me to make super-short videos. The assumptions of those video gigs was that kids don't read as much news and basically need to be read to, which I found really problematic and kind of insulting. I thought, Isn't it just that you don't have any money and that's why you want me to make some crappy "content" for your website?” WantNeedsWritingKindKidsWantedFoundExampleNewsVideoAssumptionEditorsArticlesWant MeGigsWebsiteInsultingYou Want Me Author:Astra Taylor
“The point is, this is what happens when advertising and data collection is the dominant business mode. We are encouraged to be compulsive. It's not that we're terrible addicts who need to go to an AA meeting and get off our gadgets.” NeedsHappensTerribleMeetingsAdvertisingDataCollectionsDominantAddictGadgetsAa MeetingData Collection Author:Astra Taylor
“What we need to do is take that inchoate sense that something isn't right and give it a structural component and the sense that things can be another way.” WayNeedsGivingComponentsAnother Way Author:Astra Taylor
“We've been criticizing these superficial aspects, like whether we are all more distracted. We really need to articulate a defense, a critique, that merges awareness of the technology with a more traditional, progressive, left-wing critique of the market.” NeedsLeftTechnologyAwarenessAspectWingsDefenseTraditionalCriticizeProgressiveSuperficialDistractedCritiqueLeft Wing Author:Astra Taylor
“I feel like we're stuck in the former mode of reacting because that's what gains traction in Washington. But I really believe we need a robust public good argument. Net neutrality is not just about creating the next Instagram or Farmville or whatever.” NeedsFeelsBelieveNextCreatingGainsArgumentStuckFormerInstagramReactingRobustNeutralityPublic GoodTractionNet Neutrality Author:Astra Taylor
“There's something odd about telling people, artists, that they need to work for free to be pure while you're sitting there getting a salary that ultimately is paid by a generation of young people going deeply into debt for their education.” PeopleNeedsYoungArtistGenerationsPureSittingPaidDebtOddSalary Author:Astra Taylor
“Look back on the utopian dreams of the previous century, or even the century before that, where people thought machines would ultimately give us a quality of life where our needs would be taken care of so we could all basically be artists together in the evening, after we had fished, hunted, raised cattle - or whatever it was Marx imagined for us.” PeopleNeedsGivingLooksDreamWould BeCareTogetherArtistQualityTakenCenturyMachinesRaisedEveningQuality Of LifeCattleUtopianHunted Author:Astra Taylor
“To go from the vision that we would all be free to express ourselves creatively because our material needs were being met, to this reality where nobody has money, people are unemployed, and the machines are harnessed by the lucky guys who Facebook or Google and we're supposed to be happy just to contribute content to their site.” PeopleNeedsRealityGuyVisionMaterialsMetsLuckyMachinesSupposed To BeGoogleSiteBeing MeUnemployedLucky Guy Author:Astra Taylor
“One thing that's important to point out is that this kind of populism has a long and mixed history. It's part of this tradition of problematic anti-elitism where the elites are always the liberal class - the intellectuals, the professors, the artists - and not the economic elites. Why are we so mad and aggrieved at newspaper editors but not at corporate executives? I think we need to look more at the latter, at economic elites.” ThinkingNeedsLooksKindLongImportantArtistClassOne ThingEconomicTraditionMadNewspapersCorporateLatterExecutivesEditorsProfessorsElitesElitismPopulismNewspaper Editors Author:Astra Taylor
“First we need to rethink the terms and recognize that we've imported this language from the technocratic class, from Silicon Valley, that talks about openness and transparency.” NeedsFirstsLanguageTermClassOpennessValleysTransparencySiliconSilicon Valley Author:Astra Taylor
