Short-form-ification of debate Why does it feel like you're seeing the same phrases over and over again when reading the comments under a video, or a Twitter thread, or anything else online these days? Online debate and discourse has become memefied, and at the core of every common discussion you see the same throwaway lines being used. Take any kind of environmental debate and you'll hear: "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism", and "the planet is dying anyways". Catchphrases consisting of a double-shot of anticapitalism with a fatalistic mixer, a dash of dread, and a lime wedge. You've probably heard one of these lines before; they're so commonly used as a retort to criticisms of individual choices of any kind, whether that is eating meat, taking regular flights, or buying fast fashion [link to previous article]. The attitude these phrases represent sit neatly alongside the extreme pessimism of 'doomerism' as it relates to clim...
Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. When Internet of Things (IoT) devices first started becoming popular on the market, most of us were firstly familiar with smart home devices. Our Alexas, Roombas, and other household brand names, were the start of (and end) of the public's understanding of IoT. So, I sympathise with anyone’s main takeaway being: “why would anyone need a smart fridge?” Casting all IoT devices as being just overpriced light bulbs and voice-controlled TVs is like putting computers, phones/tablets and industrial control systems in the same box. At this point, the most common IoT device is probably Bluetooth headphones, and only a few other uses are environmental monitoring, medical devices, and fault diagnosis in industrial equipment. With such a wide variety of uses, I am interested in unpicking the relationship that people have with these devices and ideas. A moment that stuck out to me, in a previous job role as an IoT engineer, was when a client said they didn’t ...