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Quote by 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.”

Quote by Astra Taylor

Author

Astra Taylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and writer, known for her in-depth exploration of social and political issues. Born in 1979, she has been producing documentaries since the 2000s, and her work has received international recognition. more

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“I try to look at the evolution of these utopian claims. In the late '60s there was an assumption that the wealth generated by industry would be taxed and then put into social programs and it would provide a baseline of stability that would allow people to have the time for self-expression; and that social contract has eroded over the last four decades and now it's every person for themselves.”

“One consequence of this is that people are expected to make it on their own by chasing clicks or building a brand. What a diminished vision that is.”

People Vision Building Consequence Expected Brands Chasing Clicks Building A Brand

Author:Astra Taylor

“As an individual navigating this reality, you have to make choices to survive. Sometimes you happily work for free if it's something you love and believe in. I'm not categorically saying that working for free is bad. I'm just looking at the broader implications of it, and also challenge this idea - and again, this is an argument made by certain people in the tech world - that amateurs are automatically more pure and will triumph over stodgy professionals.”

People Ifs World Believe Made Ideas Sometimes Reality Certain Choices Individual Challenges Pure Argument Triumph Implications Something You Love

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.”

Thinking Needs Looks Kind Long Important Artist Class One Thing Economic Tradition Mad Newspapers Corporate Latter Executives Editors Professors Elites Elitism Populism Newspaper Editors

Author:Astra Taylor

“I was shocked when I tried to articulate this to someone who had posted the film and asked them to remove it for a few months, and I actually told them that after that they could put it back up and they were just completely unwilling to compromise - you'd think I was Rupert Murdoch or something.”

Thinking Film Months Compromise Remove Shocked Unwilling

Author:Astra Taylor

“It's very complicated. There's been this broader mechanism, an industry, which wants people to use free services, from the old days of advertising-supported papers and magazines, to ad-supported free television.”

People Want Use Television Industry Paper Complicated Advertising Magazines Ads Mechanism Papers Old Days

Author:Astra Taylor

“It wasn't that people wanted things for free and asked for advertising to fund it - it's that these companies wanted to amass an audience whose "eyeballs" they could sell, and they gave people things for free to do that. Free services and content has been foisted upon us because there wasn't the will power to explore other options.”

People Has Beens Wanted Company Audience Sells Advertising Fund Will Power Eyeballs

Author:Astra Taylor

“I would like people to be more aware of the fact that ultimately we are paying for things, and it's not just as privacy advocates point out that we're paying with our time and our data. We're also paying with money, because the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on advertising is just factored into the cost of the goods that we buy. It's all coming out of our pocket, just in a really roundabout way.”

People Way Facts Cost Dollars Billions Advertising Data Our Time Privacy Pockets Goods Coming Out

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.”

Needs Firsts Language Term Class Openness Valleys Transparency Silicon Silicon Valley

Author:Astra Taylor

“We haven't developed a progressive vocabulary. We say something is "public," but we just mean it's viewable online. Or we say it's "open," but we just mean it's accessible. I would like for us to think about terms critically and maybe change our vocabulary a bit. What if pubic actually meant publicly-funded, or social meant socialized.”

Ifs Thinking Mean Social Bits Term Havens Online What If Progressive Vocabulary

Author:Astra Taylor