We Have Too Many Friends Online with Ruby Justice Thelot

<p>We discuss connection bloat, unfollowing, the &#39;timeline acquaintance&#39;, unread messages, ambient copresence, Instagram Close Friends, cultural obsession with quantification, the realm of the facial hyperreal, AI looksmaxxing apps, online checkpoints, shock of alteration/deletion, digital memory, and more. </p><p>Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, artist &amp; cyberethnographer based in new york city. He is a Professor of Design and Media studies at NYU and the author of <a href="https://www.irrelevantpress.com/store/pre-sale-a-cyberarchaeology-of-checkpoints-ruby-thelot" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">A Cyberarchaeology of Checkpoints</a>. </p><p>His recent essay for Mozilla Foundation, Everyone Has Too Many &quot;Friends&quot; Online, <a href="https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/nothing-personal/friends-online-instagram-connection-bloat-ruby-justice-thelot/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">can be read here</a>. </p><p>Ruby&#39;s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/being_on_line/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a></p><p>Ruby&#39;s <a href="https://beingonline.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Substack</a></p><p>Ruby&#39;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@being_on_line" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">YouTube</a></p>