Alt-Social ~reconnecting social media with humanity~

Meet Luana — an Italian yoga teacher who first felt her body’s need in the Mediterranean, bathing with her father as a child.In this New Year Alt-Talk episode, Luana shares how yoga and Ayurveda helped her navigate moments of disconnection—from people, society, and herself.

Ban social media — the right move?The Alt-talk host, Akky, doesn’t think so. 🔍Instead of a ban, what if we looked for co-living of “stable-social” and “alt-social”, by learning two very different kinds of thinking: calculative thinking and meditativethinking as Heidegger says?Put down our physical and metaphorical “Scouters”, the wearable devices and readouts that numerise our being, and try something else: attention, care, and deeply listen👂🔗50 Seconds of Breath-takinghttps://schoolofcommons.org/making-public/issues/2023/50-seconds-of-breath-takingAkky's photoblog⁠https://icaresque.tumblr.com⁠Gelassenheit (Releasement): its role in Heidegger’s late thinkinghttps://www.europeancentreforheideggerstudies.org/Eisenhower on Atomic Energyhttps://www.history.com/speeches/eisenhower-on-atomic-energy

What if social media was beyond a scoreboard?Akky, host of alt-talk and a digital media specialist moving between film, media studies, and communications, keeps returning to one question: What if we paused the algorithm, silenced the index, and simply listened, to what truly resonates in the heart?This podcast is Akky’s tentative response. He is now studying at the Grief Care Institute, exploring 傾聴 (keichō, active listening), combining it with the methodology by American composer/accordionist Pauline Oliveros called deep listening👂These are the links for what Akky touched upon during thetalk.-50 Seconds of Breath-takinghttps://schoolofcommons.org/making-public/issues/2023/50-seconds-of-breath-taking-Aokage Projecthttps://linktr.ee/aokageproject

This Summer Special, we welcome Case (aka “Cat”), who runs an analogue-focused motion-picture production company in New Orleans. It was at Berlinale’s 2024 European Film Market that Case and Akky sparked the idea for the Alt-Social Initiative.Case reminds us that today’s social media may be as fleeting as slide photography. Just as slides, so too might social media in twenty years become something more human and authentic.Hear the uncut half-session that gave birth to our mission in early 2025. Imagine sharing a summer-evening drink on the balcony together🍹Case’s production company🔗 shawscope.com

Emmie, Research Associate, Yale Digital Ethics Center, and Akky explore whether using polite language with AI matters, and spotlight the bright future of social media for the next wave of digital natives.⚠️ Academic alert – anthropomorphise – to give human traits to non‑humans. Akky was like "Hold up! my ears missed that acoustically!" 😂Check out her blog ⁠⁠The Ethical Reckoner

Ever imagined dropping your physical self and living entirely online? We chat with Emmie Hine, AI governance specialist who takes us back to those early days on BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) to AI-based chatbot to talk to the dead.Hit play on Part 1 to follow her journey, from diving deep into tech to mastering Chinese, and see how those paths came together to shape her work in AI ethics. Check out her blog ⁠The Ethical Reckoner

This is the second half of a discussion with 'Mad Professor'🧑‍🔬Shintaro and Akky speculate 🤔“reading, writing, arithmetic, video-editing and computermodelling could be the contemporary liberal arts”, which could be the life-saver in the digital age to counter-dance against digitality. Are these views too elitist and optimistic? Or should we still dream on?Here is the must-read👉 ⁠Counter-Dancing Digitality MastodonBlueskyCOUNTER-N

Meet the digital world's 'Mad Professor'🧑‍🔬Teaching Media Studies and Computation at Humboldt University in Berlin, Shintaro Miyazaki is pioneering 'counter-dancing digitality': a radical approach to transformingour digital lives. 💃Shintaro urges us to dive into literature, music, film, software, games, and particularly computer modelling to participate in counter-dancing raves 👯‍♂️  Tune in to hear about his journey with techno music and computation and how these experiences shaped his groundbreaking concept of counter-dancing digitality. Here is the must-read👉 ⁠Counter-Dancing Digitality  MastodonBlueskyCOUNTER-N

 This is the second half of a discussion with Lavinia (a.k.a. Love), a social entrepreneur based in Basel, Switzerland.She is launching her new social music project, Rainbow Cafe 👉 ⁠Teatime Vinyl⁠.Love discusses euthanasia in relation to her father's ongoing situation. (Additional info: Active euthanasia is illegal in Switzerland; however, providing the means for dying is legal as assisted suicide.)This is the list of films that Akky mentioned during the talk: Irene, 2023, 13 min (Sweden, Germany, Switzerland)Avec, 2014, 16 min (Estonia, Japan)

What is the relationship between analogue music and social media?Today’s guest, Lavinia (a.k.a Love), is a social entrepreneur based in Basel, Switzerland. She initiates her new social-music project, Rainbow-cafe 👉Teatime VinylLavinia talks about her passion for analogue music and how we could potentially address the instant music/food/relationship we face.