The Targeted Search for Screwing Around
Do you ever feel like there is just too much to read? Outsource the reading so you can watch someone's exasperated rant about an obscure rabbit hole you never would have heard about otherwise.
For a Digital Humanism, New Media as a Pharmakon
This commentary draws upon an article written by Geert Lovink in 2008 and the work of Gilbert Simondon to discuss the concept of digital culture in the contemporary era.
You Can See Me Naked (After the Paywall): How OnlyFans Transforms the Online Sex Industry
Whereas most social media platforms ban nudity – Instagram’s User Guidelines forbid posting pictures of women’s nipples, for example – the emergent platform OnlyFans runs on nakedness. By paying a monthly subscription fee, people can now see their favourite...
Beware of Stalkerware
In our modern age as internet users, our data is constantly being collected and used, location services can easily track us, and websites monitor our presence online. We make ourselves vulnerable to location tracking, information gathering, and privacy infringement...
The case of Landr: will AI affect music production creativity?
As AI-based technology has already slowly entered in many sectors of our digitally reshaped world, correspondingly it is increasingly being employed also in different fields of music production. (Fiebrink and Caramiaux, 2) The most popular of its applications is...
Looking behind the shiny, shiny lights – The tremendous rise of DOOH Advertising
Looking behind the shiny, shiny lights – The tremendous rise of DOOH Advertising Imagine walking around Amsterdam Centraal Station during the day. Feel the eyes of strangers coveting you, hear the sounds of the multiple vehicles whizzing by, see...
The Death of the Meme: Article 13 and what this means for the internet
On the 12th of September 2018, the European Parliament voted on a version of an EU copyright directive, namely the The European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Two articles are currently stirring up controversy, one...
Vote yay or vote nay, but you just can’t ignore micro-targeting.
“Numbers and democracy have always been linked.”John Durham Peters proclaims, giving examples from Greek political systems to modern opinion surveys. He focuses on majority – the social force through numbers, that democracy uses to establish legitimacy (434). And when...
From Cable TV to IGTV: The media might indeed be the message.
Abstract – Instagram’s new application, IGTV brings about a change in how we consume media. Will it act as a replacement for platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo or Snapchat sending them out of business? IGTV also raises questions about...
Will Elli.Q be on your Wishlist? Artificial Intelligence within Elderly Care, a Closer Look
As we’re zeroing in on October 1st, the International Day of Older Persons, it’s high time we turn the spotlight to our expeditiously ageing world. While healthcare professionals are tasked with overcoming staff shortages and budget cuts, new...
C´mon Apple, you as well!? – The iOS 12 Update will calculate your trust score
September has been an important month for Apple so far. The new iPhones have launched and the new iOS update has managed to overshadow the excitement of many Apple fans. One month ago, Facebook demonstrated a new way of...
Technology in the Workplace, Slack and Privacy Issues
(Figure 1, Screenshot of Slack website page. Source: Slack, 2018) 1)- Technology in the Workplace: “As innovations in technology continue to proliferate, employees working in the modern workplace have access to an ever-increasing number of new technologies” (Swaya...
“Can I Read Your Diary?”
Meditation apps, fitness apps, water intake apps, calorie count apps, menstrual cycle apps and, as of recently, journaling apps – all too popular, but the repercussions of data transparency online are rarely acknowledged. An ongoing trend Becoming...
The Cost of Convenience: Alexa As A Cloud-Based A.I. Smart Home System
Alexa is seemingly the A.I. of choice for smart home users in the current digital environment, and with the introduction of an audio assisted A.I. system into homes with more and more compatible devices released every year, what is...
How Can Art Be Subversive in a Platform System? The Case of Benjamin Grosser
What would happen if one morning, a morning like many others, after you got up, you discovered that your Facebook home page is completely empty, without any type of content? I’m not talking about a crash or...
Mission Control: The changing boundaries of control and ownership in the world’s biggest crowd funding success.
The latest controversy surrounding the in development game Star Citizen, struck me as illustrative of the pitfalls and complexities of new forms of financing, and how they manifest the sunk cost fallacy in new, unexpected ways. It isn’t just...
Skipping the Line or Skipping Time? How Foodsy Speeds Up Life
The new app Foodsy is an example to show how life is speeding up and how digital media contribute to this. Foodsy is an emergent app made for train passengers in the Netherlands which allows them to order food...
Article 13: The End of Internet Freedom . . . and Memes?
Generally speaking the world of European politics and memes have very little overlap. However, a vote on the 10th of September in the European Parliament has brought together two parties that are traditionally mutually exclusive. Article 13 of the ‘European...
WhatsApp Killings: Affordances Of The Platform
In the past year, there have been multiple mob killings in India (Vindu Goel, Suhasini Raj and Priyadarshini Ravichandran). At least 30 people have been murdered by these mobs (Michael Safi). Why are these killings happening? The answer is...
Wonder or Worry? Google has a new human-sounding Assistant!
We can see AI at work everyday in the form of virtual personal assistants, which are embedded in almost any smartphone today. Whether its Alexa, Siri or Google Now, these virtual assistants have made our everyday lives simpler and...
Is IGTV set to tilt our perception of online videos from horizontal to vertical?
IGTV is a new feature within the main Instagram app, as well as a new standalone app of its own, dedicated to the sharing of long-form vertical videos. What does this mean for online video-sharing platforms, like YouTube? Are...
Made in China: The Rise of the SuperBanking App
Historically, the Western world has made the majority of its biggest and most innovative discoveries through travel and the colonisation of other areas and continents that took our fancy. From tobacco to chocolate, the Silk Road has long since...
“What’s mine is yours”; sharing a wardrobe with strangers online with The Nu Wardrobe
Subletting a living space on Airbnb, sharing a car as mode of transportation with Blablacar or borrowing a stranger’s power drill for a couple of hours using Peerby has become a well-established and often used practice in 2017. Enter...
Managing the ‘self’: your DNA online
How to explore your inner self? You could go to a retreat in Thailand. You could ask your mother about your childhood. Or you could upload your DNA online. Awakens’ Genomic Explorer allows you to dissect your genetics by...