I’m leery of the idea of piling on on this platform, so let me just say that this is in regard to the #mastodon vs #bluesky post that a lot of you are taking about today. Here’s what I think.
The problem with this critique in particular, and the idea of BlueSky in general, is that it is evidence that even the most thoughtful (and radical) thinkers, developers and workers in digital tech have internalized the ideology of SV digital capitalism over the past two decades.
What dominates everything is the idea that the “user” is king and that “user experience” is paramount. Whether taken from a position of realism (“you just can’t compete with a slick interface”) or compliment, the user (or “audience”) is treated as the ultimate judge by which any software or technology rises and falls.
This logic is inseparable from capitalist logic. Under it, capital will always win, because capital always gives the most pleasure.
For what it is worth, this is an old old old debate in media and cultural studies, and understanding it is something that folks with a background in cultural studies and technology can contribute to this debate.
To put my cards out on the table, I’m far more on #teamadorno than I was 20 years ago. 🤷🏻♂️
But whatever else you take away from this, a technology that truly wants to change the world cannot make “user experience” or even “mass adoption” the metric by which success is judged. /end.
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