"People first" - making tech work for you

A conversation with Visakan Veerasamy about choosing agency over algorithms

We made a print publication!

In case you missed it, you can read the announcement here. We’re releasing excerpts from a few pieces digitally. For access to all of the essays, Q&As, and features, purchase your copy — there are only 63 physical copies left.

Here’s a preview of one of our favorite interviews in the zine with

visakan veerasamy

.

Visa is a prolific writer and has a presence on Twitter that few can match. He’s a living, breathing example of someone learning (and sharing how) to lead an online life with intention and care.

Below is a conversation with Visa on how to exert agency over algorithms and stay focused on what we want from our digital tools.

Enjoy :)

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Means to an End

A conversation with Visakan Veerasamy
Interview by Anna Dorothea Ker

ADK —
Your work is remarkable for the way in which it uses digital tools and platforms in unconventional ways to make new connections. How would you describe your relationship with technology?

VV —
It’s complicated, but I would start by saying that I’m grateful to technology. I still remember being a kid feeling alienated and disenfranchised by my social reality, and technology for me was a window into other worlds. Technology for me meant freedom. I’ve always thought of the internet as an extension of the library. Books themselves were once cutting-edge media technology, which we now tend to take for granted – Carl Sagan had a beautiful quote about how a series of funny dark squiggles imprinted on dead trees allow us to hallucinate the mind of another person who may have been dead for thousands of years. Our current technology allows us to read and write and speak near-directly into the minds of others, instantaneously, for almost negligible cost. 

Technology is an enabler, and it enables people, for both better and worse. Ev Williams, a cofounder of Twitter, said that if you want to build a billion-dollar internet company, you identify a human desire – something people have always done – and then you remove steps from that process, making it easier to do. I love the optimism in that, but a tragic thing that techno-optimists have always overlooked – or disregarded – is that not all human desires are healthy. Sometimes people want to hurt others, and technology enables that, too. Technology is a magic mirror, and it’s tempting to hate or resent the mirror for what it shows us. There are legitimate complaints people have for the way the mirror behaves, and I encourage people to think through those grievances honestly. 

But for the most part, I remain grateful. I always think about the next alienated, disenfranchised kid like myself, particularly those who are struggling in parts of the world where things are much rougher than many of us currently online are accustomed to. I suppose you could say that I’ve taken it upon myself, as part of my life’s mission, to make things better for the next kid. I don’t think technology alone can fix that. It takes people who care about other people. Caring, I think, is the one thing that cannot be outsourced or automated. We can certainly create the illusion of care, and that illusion might be better than nothing for someone who has none, but ultimately I hope everyone gets access to people who care about them. Technology can help facilitate that. But it is not a substitute for it. That’s what I believe.

ADK —
What are your strategies for rising above the noise of the ever-shifting algorithms and staying focused on the purposes we want to leverage them towards?

VV —
People first. I’ve always found that to be the simplest and most potent idea. When I was a teenager in ~2005, there was this local band that I admired. Their shows would be rowdy and rebellious, yet the singer would hang around after the show and talk to everyone who remained, ask them questions, and really listen to the answers. He’d hand out little pieces of paper with the band’s website on it. That’s the sort of direct “talk to people” process that I’ve always tried to be true to. 

I try to participate in as many real conversations with real people as possible. Online, this means leaving thoughtful replies and comments as much as possible. I don’t have to care about algorithms if I have people who care about me. And I get people to care about me by first demonstrating that I care about them. Some people I’ve talked with over the years have said that this seems like “too much effort”, but I counter with “it’s effort that actually pays off over time”, contrasted with minimal effort that doesn’t. 

People first. People have problems. People have worries. People are struggling with stuff. People are lonely. People need help. People are eager to hear from anyone who’s willing to actually talk to them.

ADK —
If the medium is the message, how can we keep our tools in service of our goals, and resist succumbing to thinking and acting in service of our tools?

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