“The internet is increasingly making us less democratic, more isolated, and more beholden to corporations,” writes communications professor Jessa Lingel in her new book, The Gentrification of the Internet.
Today on the show, she joins WORT producer Richelle Wilson for a discussion of how the internet is becoming gentrified, why it matters, and what we can do about it.
They talk about the latest news from Reddit and OnlyFans, how Big Tech contributes to urban gentrification, the importance of net neutrality, online surveillance and digital redlining, and what it might look like to “reclaim our digital freedom.”
Jessa Lingel is an associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where she studies digital culture. She is the author of Digital Countercultures and the Struggle for Community (MIT Press, 2017), An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of Craigslist (Princeton University Press, 2020), and most recently The Gentrification of the Internet: How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom (University of California Press, 2021).
Cover image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
