New World Same Humans #57 – Audio Version

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin. If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 16,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮 This week, how the pandemic pushed us deeper inside our troubled relationship with technoconsumerism. And the emergence of a new way to fight back. Hit play! If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of New World Same Humans #57. Links in this week’s instalment 1. Facebook saw daily users increase by 12% in 2020. 2. Amazon’s net profits rose by 84%. 3. Netflix signed up 26 million new paid subscribers in the first half of the year, against 28 million for the whole of 2019. 4. A global survey conducted by polling company Ipsos just before the pandemic found that concern over the way companies use our data had risen by 8% since 2013. 5. Data Leverage: A Framework for Empowering the Public in its Relationship with Technology Companies asks what ordinary people can do to win back some of the power being amassed by the big digital platforms. 6. A few years ago coder and technologist Daniel Howe and others created AdNauseum, a browser plugin that blocks but simultaneously clicks on every online ad served by a web browser. 7. A recent research paper concluded that AdNauseum works, and defended it against the accusation that by making advertising impossible it will lead to the demise of free content on the web. 8. Alias is a device that sits on top of a smart speaker and continually ‘whispers’ a stream of inaudible static to it so that the device can’t eavesdrop on those around it. Activate This Thanks for reading this week! If this week’s instalment struck a chord, please consider forwarding the email to someone who’d also enjoy it. Or share this across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. See you then, David. David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.newworldsamehumans.xyz