Un paio di citazioni da questo saggio:
The example of electronic waste is a compelling one. Citizens of the world witness an ever-growing pile of hazardous materials and a complex stream of discarded electronics that are insufficiently addressed by sophisticated, yet shallow e-waste management policies (Lepawsky 2018) [..] Yet it makes sense to think beyond the material streams of matter. Waste, here, can also mean emotional waste, time lost on apps, and the loss of commitment to communities that crumble when nourishing infrastructure is disrupted.
The waste generated by the digital media we consume is rendered invisible through the cloud metaphor. As J. R. Carpenter (2016) has argued, amongst many others, the “language of The Cloud is a barrier” to grappling with the actual material costs and impacts of internet infrastructures. While in the past, the so-called Twitter ‘fail whale’ (an icon that appeared during service outages) used to at least be a proxy for Twitter’s buckling infrastructure, present-day usage is generally without interruption. Or, rather, interruptions are harder to notice. We argue that the seamlessness of the user experience is illusionary, as it covers violent infrastructural practices of material extraction at the very foundation of technological infrastructure and its sustained maintenance.
On the one hand, it is questionable if a decentralized network such as Mastodon – both in terms of technology and staff infrastructure – can ensure continuous service. On the other hand, outages that make it impossible to traffic masses of panic posts may also be an advantage to healthier public debate and quality time online. We may revise our social media-shaped desires to be online and continuously produce and consume information. These networks are shaped and challenged by use. In return, the user experience is shaped and challenged by the viability, sustainability, and resilience of its infrastructure (and what that infrastructure relies on – like electricity and water.)