What could we discover about the forces shaping the internet, and what could we learn about how to fight back against those forces if we committed to the metaphor of gentrification? In The Gentrification of the Internet: How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom, Jessa Lingel shows that gentrification can be a useful lens through which to expose how power and class play out in online space. In a moment of increasing techno-skepticism, The Gentrification of the Internet offers a starting point for action, grounded in the reality of urban gentrification activism with proven results.
Articles by Alyce Currier
Alyce Currier is currently enrolled in Pratt Institute’s MS in Information Experience Design, expected to graduate in 2023. After studying sociology and media studies as an undergraduate, they spent the last decade working in the tech industry. With a critical but optimistic eye toward technology, they are particularly interested in exploring what it looks like to build strong, intentional communities and systems of support (both online and offline) outside of corporate control, and in building meaningful connections in an increasingly stressful and exploitative attention economy.