Losing sociability

I am in Toronto in October! I will be speaking at the Shift Shapers Design Thinkers conference. Tickets here. More info on my talk here. This is followed by giving the opening keynote (no pressure) at the ShiftShaping Design Educators. Register here.

My article “Moments of Palestine” will be published in the next issue of Disegno Journal. Get a copy when it comes out next month.

Books:

Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region is available for purchase online, or order it at your favourite bookstore).

The second print of Designerly Ways of Knowing is available with a new cover (big up Pali!). Order here.

You can now donate by subscribing but my posts remain completely to everyone. If you feel like you would like to donate to continue the writing, I am grateful.

There was a time when being on Instagram (and prior to that Facebook) was exciting. That time has ceased. My friends don’t post, brands do. I am asked if posts about certain products are relevant to me, not if a person is relevant to me.

In 2008, my first career was working as influencer relations coordinator at a small marketing firm in Toronto. I was a young blogger and understood the landscape. The role was new, and the goal to recruit influencers to promote products on their blogs. But rather than the trash ways they do it today, it was organic. The reviews could be negative and included a real life element. For example, vodka tastings at an only members club, hosting a party featuring a Carlsberg keg. We paid in product not in sponsorship.

At the time, convincing clients of investing in this model was difficult. Bloggers were also reluctant to work with you because the site was about sharing their views and ideas, not commercial purposes. Whilst I moved on to a larger advertising agency shortly after, extending the role into interactive (also a hard sell in 2009), my entry into the world of influence introduced me to other bloggers who quickly became my friends in Toronto when I was new to the city. Despite being in touch with almost none of them now (🤷🏻‍♀️), and it not being the best time of my life, I look back on those days fondly. Side note: I read this article about losing touch with friends. A good read but I think 28 years old is too early to be asking friends why you lost touch, it would be more viable to ask someone who is over 35.

I hate what the social media landscape has become and shudder at the thought that I helped shape it in a way. This is maybe why I’ve turned to watching YouTube, which is not something I’ve ever done (beyond the odd video someone sent me or rare song not found on other platforms). But I have not found solace. With algorithms, you watch one video on something and your whole feed becomes that thing. Brands and sponsorship follow me wherever I go. Every video I watch is sponsored by Squarespace, or another product that takes up about 2-3 minutes of air time, or it is about buying stuff, or if they are not sponsored, they have their own shop where they sell stuff. STUFF STUFF STUFF —- DROPS DROPS DROPS —- COLLABS COLLABS COLLABS —- MERCH MERCH MERCH.

YouTube videos are a formula: people with too much time on their hands claim everything is a GAME CHANGER (abolish this term), featuring long-winded intros worse than intros on recipe posts, reminding you to “hit that subscribe button”, with their YouTube trophy in the background of their airspace office/living room/bedroom, using the same shots and preaching what not to do (with almost always ZERO credibility).

I have gotten lost in the YouTube comments, particularly on nostalgia induced videos. The racists love YouTube. To quote a friend (I am no longer in touch with) who asked this way back when, “before the internet, did these people write a letter to the editor every day?” The comments have a pattern: blatantly racist comments – for example “ah when you only saw white faces in London”, or when fear of being called racist by other commentators hits, they resort to nostalgia for “grey and gloomy England, when it used to rain a lot.” Or that could just be people who have climate anxiety reminding us the world is warming. Either way, the comments are better than the videos. Go ahead, try it. It’s a game changer (I kid I kid).

Be well,

Danah (The Pessoptimist)

• Processing everything going on in the planet, the world also lost Ziad Rahbani. His death hit me hard, because there are not many musicians like Ziad, whose politics are central to the work left. The albums he produced/wrote for his mum Fairuz are some of my all time favourites, not to mention he has released fantastic music over his career. afikra put together a compilation playlist featuring his work and Fairuz’s. My favourite album is Houdou Nisbi, where every song is brilliant.

• July mixtape

• Motherland is both a scary and hilarious watch, especially for new parents.

• Design & Disability at the V&A: featuring a range of works from different specialisations, I enjoyed how the navigation was considered and the exhibition is manageable in a couple of hours.