Understanding virtual worlds is important because “we increasingly live in a world in which opting out of technological systems is more and more difficult and yet participation within those systems pushes us to accept structures we might oppose” (Taylor 2006a:135). - Tom Boellstorff (Coming of Age in Second life: An Anthropologist explores the Virtually Human)
Back in 2020, memewhile.mp3 and I facilitated a discussion with a small group over a Design Baithak, about how the culture of livestreaming was meeting the world of political campaigning. We tried to put together a sense-making exercise deriving from the affordances of a Twitch-like platform and its associated subculture to try to understand how manufactured authenticity was about to become the new wave of algorithmic manipulation. Since then, corporate social media accounts have en masse transitioned from a professional matter-of-fact approach to a more ‘based memester’ culture of wink wink hot takes, weaponising a perception of authenticity through “unhinged” interactions for clout (e.g. Duolingo and Wendy’s).
