Pre-Internet Broadcast and the Post-Internet World

TV and radio never went away, but I would argue that the “For you” algorithms of TikTok et al. have taken the spotlight. Don’t get me wrong: I love getting served a uniquely curated feed as much as the next second-hand thinker, but let’s take a moment to discuss one of the greatest gifts of TV and radio broadcasts: SHARED KNOWLEDGE 🗣️

Shared knowledge is a fundamental ingredient in forming relationships and communities, and something that TV and radio broadcasts help build. Cities like Malmö can only curate and broadcast so many TV channels, giving us all the time to familiarize ourselves with the same limited set of options. Even though the content is fleeting, the channels are constant. No matter what they choose to air, TV4 and SVT are not going anywhere.

This brings me to how I fundamentally view TV and radio broadcasts more as places than just content—and when my dad asks “Did you see the game last night?” it’s not really different from asking “Were you there last night?” The couch? The stadium? Whatever. The point is that the same thing happened in front of us both at the same time.

Now, your “For you” TikTok feed can help build shared knowledge, especially for the chronically online, such as yourself. Directly sharing your “For you” content with others (usually in-app DMs) even brings this social work to the foreground—in the same way that watching TV together on a shared living-room couch would. However, if you and your friends exist on different platforms, I guess you’ll just have to hope someone at the bar has seen the same set of niche and obscure TikToks as you—be it the gnomes and the knights, women dressed as Alexander Hamilton climbing out of windows, or countless people doing the recent Sabrina Carpenter “tears” trend (you freak ❤️). I’m willing to bet they’re more likely to have seen the latest episode of Invandrare för Svenskar.

Okay, so assuming that you’ve grown hopelessly apart from your local communities ever since you cheated on your TV with your phone—which you now pervertedly hook up with your smart TV—what can you possibly do to feel whole again? How would broadcasting media need to change and present in order to even begin rivalling the appeal of your Swiss-Army slot-machine?

Broadcast to a decentralized web. In other words: leverage the Internet protocol that the World Wide Web Consortium has been recommending since 2018! Let me explain:

Imagine that an over-the-Internet broadcasting (livestreaming) platform like YouTube is a thousand metropolises stacked on top of each other. All the traffic, all the buildings, all the business is so amalgamated that it’s like architectural soup. Even Malmö is in there somewhere, except it’s been morphed, stretched out, and shattered across the entire amalgamegalopolis. Everything you could ever want exists somewhere within. But when newcomer Selma tries to get her Malmö-centric crocheting group organised, it’s like trying to see the night sky by shining a laser in each eye for every star that exists before glueing your eyelids shut.

Now forget that monstrosity and imagine if all content were stored in the respective city it was made in, and that roads connected the cities so that we could still share with one another. This is essentially how decentralized apps/platforms work; they are more like actual places! There is no big corporation that stores or controls your content; each community is responsible for its own. This also means that when Selma streams her Malmö-centric crocheting content, it will be visible to everyone in Malmö first and foremost, regardless of what roads may or may not be sending her content elsewhere.

The best part? TikTok-like platforms can be built on the decentralized web, too! In fact, every social media platform you know of could be made to work with the decentralized web. The actual best part? Social media platforms on the decentralized web can even talk to each other. Local, over-the-Internet broadcasts could be shown on all the kinds of platforms that you already use! Conversely, imagine if posts on Instagram were automatically visible on Twitter. Imagine being able to follow an Instagram account—or a broadcast—from your Pinterest account. You would only need one social media account, and how you use it wouldn’t get in the way of whatever content you want to post or consume.

Why haven’t you heard about this until now? Why are existing social media giants not incorporating the new and recommended Internet protocol that will make all of our lives easier? Uh oh, it hurts their itty bitty bottom line… ow ow, poor billionaire company would be so jealous if your eyeballs weren’t exclusively on them anymore… now that you and your friends have independent yet compatible options.

Anyway, if you want to learn more about platforms that already exist on the decentralized web, you can check out “PixelFed,” an Instagram alternative, “Loops,” a TikTok alternative, “PeerTube,” the YouTube alternative, and maybe you’ve already heard of “Mastodon,” the Twitter-like platform. Other developing platforms include:

“Bookwyrm,” for tracking and reviewing your books.
“Funkwhale,” for sharing and consuming music and podcasts.
“Mobilizon,” for organizing and sharing events.
“Lemmy,” a traditional forum.
“Ibis,” a collaborative encyclopedia platform.
“Owncast,” which enables livestreaming independently of any platform.

The list goes on and on. These tools are growing every day, and hundreds more niche platforms keep appearing in this open and interconnected ecosystem now called The Fediverse. We have the tools. Now, all we need to do is give them a place in which to live. Why not start with Malmö? How would we do that? By hosting our own “instance,” “pod” or “branch” of whatever platforms we like. Who’s going to do that? Well… things are changing at a rapid pace, and someone is cooking. All you have to do is keep a lookout. Stay tuned :)

Chris Illy Culling

Pre-Internet Broadcast and the Post-Internet World

Further Reading