…And we’re back

Did you miss me?

Hey everyone, welcome back to Context and Content. Remember this fun little side project? 

Last fall, I took a break here as I was beginning the Leaf Fellowship. Since completing that, my wife and I welcomed a son into the world, and many other things have happened. For a while, part of me wondered whether my fun little project here had run its course. But as I’ve finished the Leaf Fellowship and returned to my regular reading routine, I am continually amazed as new ideas and facets of our hyper-media-connected world jump off the page at me. 

It’s worth recapping what we are doing here. If I go back to C&C Post 1 (published back in February of 2021), I posed a series of questions:

How much influence does the email app you’re reading this in have over the email’s content?

How much influence does the short-video format of an Insta story have over the type of information communicated through it?

How much impact does the choice to send someone a text, give them a phone call, have a Zoom meeting, or meet them in person have over what’s communicated?

I ended that post with the question: “What effects are these media really having on us?”

The fun thing about that question is there is never a complete answer. That’s frustrating but also an opportunity.

Since I started my break for the Leaf Fellowship, the world has gone from debating the merits and follies of the Metaverse and blockchain to contemplating the future of humanity as it relates to generative AI. We are seeing an explosion of applications of these tools that will undoubtedly continue to transform our day-to-day lives. In light of these changes and the changes yet to come, it seems as important as ever for us to have this place to question the impacts of these tools. 

So welcome back. My life has changed a lot since we started this project, and I will attempt to post regularly, but as often as I post, I thank you for reading along and asking you to take some time to consider these questions with me.