In this talk, that was held in Akbank Sanat on November 9th, 2023, Geert Lovink, one of today's most important media theorists, focuses on social media platforms and the new techno-sociality. He explores key elements of platform culture theory and their appeal, such as online addiction, Zoom fatigue, cancel culture, toxic viral memes, NFTs and fake news. He shows that attempts to design sites to solve these problems, no matter how apolitical they try to be, fail to generate either serious critique or legitimate alternatives. Arguing that another network culture is possible, Lovink urges us to consider the engineering of these sites as a means of building intimate relationships, because boredom, he argues, is the first stage in overcoming "platform nihilism" and can free us to organize to stop the data-collecting industries.
Presentation by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ebru Yetişkin