Unlike Us #3

Unlike Us #3 - Social Media: Design or Decline
Session 3: Political Economy of Social Networks: Art & Practice

Richard Metzger (US) - Video Interview
Conference Day #1 (22 March 2013)

The Facebook interface is filled with numbers. These numbers, or metrics, measure and present our social value and activity, enumerating friends, likes, comments and more. Benjamin Grosser presents his software intervention called Facebook Demetricator. Demetricator allows Facebook’s users to hide these metrics. The focus is no longer on how many friends one has or on how much people like their status, but on who they are and what they said. Friend counts disappear. ‘16 people like this’ becomes ‘people like this’. Through changes like these, Demetricator invites Facebook’s users to try the system without the numbers, to see how the experience is changed by their absence. This open source browser add-on thus aims to disrupt the prescribed sociality these metrics produce, enabling a network society that isn’t dependent on quantification.

When Richard Metzger published his article “Facebook: I Want My Friends Back” on DangerousMinds.net, it quickly went viral. The article outlined how Dangerous Minds’ Facebook reach suffered after the introduction of Promoted Posts. Metzger shares his experience and critique in a short video interview.

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Unlike Us #3

Created by Institute of Network Cultures

Unlike Us #3: 22-23 March, 2013
at TrouwAmsterdam and Studio HvA / MediaLAB Amsterdam

Is the word ‘social’ hollowed out, or does it still have some meaning? How to understand the thunderous growth of mobile uses in social media? Is there really something…


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Unlike Us #3: 22-23 March, 2013
at TrouwAmsterdam and Studio HvA / MediaLAB Amsterdam

Is the word ‘social’ hollowed out, or does it still have some meaning? How to understand the thunderous growth of mobile uses in social media? Is there really something like a Facebook riot and how do we start one? Theorists, programmers and artists alike react to the monopolies that control social media – by designing decentralized networks, creating art that’s criticizing and surprising at the same time or by trying to understand the big networks from within. Meet them at the third Unlike Us conference organized by the Institute of Network Cultures on 22-23 March 2013 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

International speakers discuss both the big gestures of Theory, the ambitious plans of artists, programmers and activists. There are workshops to put Unlike Us into practice without delay and discussions on specific issues that Unlike Us hasn’t dealt with so far. The different themes will cover theory and critique, decentralization, mobile use, activism, and the art and politics of social networks.

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