Facebook and Instagram are designed to consume our time and attention, but it is increasingly clear that this is damaging to our mental health, privacy and democracy.
In response, Ben Grosser, an artist and professor at the University of Illinois, has invented an unusual new social network.
Called Minus, it’s a platform that mimics Facebook but discourages constant engagement by giving users 100 posts – for their entire lifetime.
Meant as a provocation rather than a sustainable business, Minus builds on more than a decade of Grosser’s work, exploring what healthier, richer communication might look like on the internet.
Grosser focuses on the cultural effects of social media, particularly the way it preys on users’ insecurities, taps into our desire for instant gratification and is designed to be addictive.
Over…
