Missing Orkut

I was reading a passage from bell hooks' All About Love, about how the culture of individualism is a strategy of domination, and it got me thinking about how technology has been contributing to that.

For a while now I've been discussing, in my therapy sessions, how the internet went from a passion of mine to a kind of paranoia when it comes to what society we're helping create.

The culture of individualism is starting to worry me in the world of tech. Remember Orkut's concept of "communities"? And the chat rooms? Weren't they nice?

Okay, we can turn to other platforms — which we even call social networks — but it strikes me that, generally speaking, these tools tend to adopt a hierarchical kind of socializing, where one posts and the others follow. The sense that everyone holds the same worth gets emptied out.

Socializing in a circle, where every member is read as equal, is a tradition that traces back to African ancestry. There's no room for one to speak while others just listen. I keep wondering: could that be one of the reasons Orkut was so strong in the Blackest country outside Africa?

Look, in my opinion, socializing isn't exactly Western whiteness's strong suit — and notice who appropriated that role?

Thinking back on my life online, I realize one of the things that kept me hooked was the hope of meeting other people who like the same things I do — but sadly, I don't even remember who the last internet friend I made was.

Well, true, we have way more tools nowadays to soothe the longing for our social bonds. But shouldn't that longing be our biological tool for seeking connection in the first place?

Are we killing the longing and putting technology in its place — is that really what's happening?

Historically, this has always happened, fact. Right there, in front of your eyes, is a device called a telephone, nice to meet you! You can call and talk to someone you love.

Now, computing is infinitely more powerful than the telephone. Before long, home assistants will be capable of being your friend, and worse: you might even find them better than your biological friends, since they won't disappoint you — unless the internet goes down, HA.

Speaking of longing — how are we supposed to trust a people who don't even have that word in their dictionary to build our social networks? There are plenty of studies confirming that language shapes our perception of reality and our behavior. Maybe that's why our relationships are getting more and more shallow — we learned from the internet that people can be discarded with a simple swipe left, since the next one might meet your needs better. And so we keep turning into... phone zombies... 8 hours a day staring at a little screen instead of spending time with our fellow travelers.

Ahhh, this individualist logic.

Computing and the internet are tools, and like any tool, there's no inherent sense of good or bad. It's us, human beings, who assign that value through how we use them. That's exactly why I fight for more diversity in tech, though I confess I'm not very optimistic. After all, the efficiency of computing and capitalism advances faster than reforms to our social structures.

As I see it, the balance so far still leans positive. We've contributed more toward life than toward its stagnation. And the future? Will we live in our "perfect" little virtual worlds, isolated from reality, in a way not unlike the Matrix, where disconnecting leaves our existence meaningless? Or will there still be space and time for our lives and the lives of those beside us — if we can still see anyone at all?