flâneur

Everything Is Television - Derek Thompson

derekthompson.org · 2,460 words · saved by 4 readers

A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television. Three examples: You learn a lot about a company when its back is against the wall. This summer, we learned something important about Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In an antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission, Meta filed a legal brief on August 6, in which it made a startling claim. Meta cannot possibly be a social media monopoly, Meta said, because it is not really a social media company. Only a small share of time spent on its social-networking platforms is truly “social” networking—that is, time spent checking in with friends and family. More than 80 percent of time spent on Facebook and more than 90 percent of time spent on Instagram is spent watching videos, the company reported. Most of that time is spent watching content from creators whom the user does not know. From the FTC filing: Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s servic

A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television. Three examples: You learn a lot about a company when its back is against the wall. This summer, we learned something important about Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In an antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission, Meta filed a legal brief on August 6, in which it made a startling claim. Meta cannot possibly be a social media monopoly, Meta said, because it is not really a social media company. Only a small share of time spent on its social-networking…

saved by

related reading