Culture emerges from a set of protocols we use to collectively exchange ideas/information. Right now the protocols are Facebook, Twitter, tiktok, Netflix, What

Culture emerges from a set of protocols we use to collectively exchange ideas/information. Right now the protocols are Facebook, Twitter, tiktok, Netflix, WhatsApp etc. In the early web, the protocols were http and smtp. Now those are mostly abstracted away. Corporations own the protocols, they control the medium and therefore the message is limited to the protocols they define. We’re all living in shopping malls, casinos, and office parks (metaverse lol). The same thing happened in the 80s to the culture Cowen’s referring to. I imagine the web will be where normies do their thing and a counterculture based on some new protocols will emerge. (If that’s crypto, it’s kinda funny and sad that it skips the idea generation phase and jumps straight to a culture of shill.)