The early blogosphere functioned as a desubjectifying network of joyful encounters

Evidence

As Undercurrent described it over on hyperstition, at its best, blogging can be a “participative molecular collective of truly K+ processes (i.e. buying materials to write about so other people reply and recommend other things which you then write about…)”. What has begun to emerge on the most destratifying elements of the blogosphere is a depersonalising, desubjectifying network producing more joyful encounters in a positive feedback process in which mammal-reptilian conflict defaults are disabled. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2335

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: the 2000s blogosphere as a genuine example of collective depersonalized intelligence, contrasted with today’s platform-mediated social media.
• XREF: Echoes the gift-economy and communal knowledge-circulation themes in The Library: A Fragile History and Milgrom’s law-merchant reputation networks — both concern how bottom-up reciprocity sustains productive communities. — connects to: Early bloggers experienced their blogs as extensions of their selves and bodies — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 907; Social media platforms institutionalized first-person self-expression norms that emptied fictionality — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 161; Social media rerouted the internet’s early anonymity into compulsory self-expression — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 161

Broader Connections

• Early bloggers experienced their blogs as extensions of their selves and bodies #complicates (0.82) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 907
• Social media rerouted the internet’s early anonymity into compulsory self-expression #complicates (0.78) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 161
• Social media platforms institutionalized first-person self-expression norms that emptied fictionality #complicates (0.74) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 161