Platforms may cannibalize what came before, but eventually they generate their own formats:

  • • Spotify started with CD culture, ended with bland “mood” playlists full of 90-second vibe-clones

  • • Google started with the open web, ended full of bland, SEO-optimized pap

  • • Amazon started with books, quickly added 100% of physical culture, and ended with endless fake-sounding SEO-optimized pseudo-products

  • • Ebooks started with the vast catalog of all books ever written, ended with direct-to-ebook authors cranking out 6+ novels a year to keep their speedreading fans satisfied

Of course the cannibalized thing usually persists, impoverished but still alive albeit continuing to be cannibalized. How interesting, though, to look directly the formats generated specifically for and by these platforms. We should pray that the places we go for culture in the next twenty years call forth formats that feel less hollow, less joyless, and less “optimized” than these.

Jasper Nighthawk @jaspernighthawk