Looks Like New: Eli Pariser – Can the Internet be a public space?

When we think about social media platforms and online interactions, it might seem like we are merely experiencing feeds of information that are curated for us by algorithms. The scale by which companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram now operate can make us question whether these information sharing spaces are public at all. What would it look like for platforms to look more like other kinds of public spaces in our lives?

This month on Looks Like New, we have a conversation with Eli Pariser, whose career has involved building several influential online platforms, pushing into the status quo by rethinking our online spaces by reflecting on human engagement in other kinds of public spaces—libraries, parks, and the democratic process.

CU Boulder’s MEDLab’s radio show and podcast, Looks Like New, asks old questions about new tech.

Each month, host Nathan Schneider and the Looks Like New team speaks with people who work with technology in ways that challenge conventional narratives and dominant power structures. The name comes from the phrase “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” repeated throughout the works of Peter Maurin, the French agrarian poet and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Looks Like New airs the fourth Thursday of every month at 6 p.m., or by podcast on iTunes