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Imagining Our Social Media Future

WNYC Studios / On the Media

January 15, 2021

Hosted by: Brooke Gladstone

The events of January 6 were only further proof that what happens in Balkanized communication channels will inevitably converge with the so-called real world. Ever wonder how social media might look if it were treated more like the physical world? Eli Pariser is co-director of Civic Signals, an initiative that uses insights from urban planning to think about how to build digital spaces that do not monetize our social activity or spy on us for profit.

This week, Pariser tells Brooke that the perils of our current social media landscape can't be solved by better technology or more advanced algorithms. The solution is low-tech, though challenging: social programming, run by real people. And who better to glean wisdom from than the people running parks and libraries, who have been managing these challenges in our physical world for decades?

Listen to this segment from the January 15th, 2021 program, You Missed a Spot.

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