Callum Copely, New Document

Initially this website was both confusing and distracting. With random pop-ups and noises, it seemed a bit overwhelming. I also had a hard time navigating the website, especially with the long load-up times.

After letting everything load (took around three minutes), the website settles down dramatically. Navigation becomes easier and you are not scared off by the dings and rings. I appreciate Copely’s use of design, and his colophon he chose to add towards the end. I will pull some quotes from his piece:

- “New platforms are altering the temporal and spatial nature of conversation, and in turn affecting the ways we interact. The text of an instant message appears as a two dimensional object on a screen, yet its meaning is not static - it is intimately tied to the speed with which it was typed and the frequency with which the enter button has been hit.

His analysis of digital/online conversation is quite interesting as he examines the act of sending a message, or the speed in which it is typed and sent. Though everything on the screen is inherently two dimensional, there are variables that push the dynamics of a space.

- “There is a clear trend within social media of replicating popular features across platforms as those platforms attempt to attain a monopoly over social media rather than to occupy a specific place in its wider ecology. This means services are becoming ever fickle. A homogenization of features amongst the leading platforms displays an obvious intention to dominate the market.”

Here Callum Copely dissects the appropriation of trends between leading social platforms. He implies the scarcity of originality as corporations fight for their position above one another, making unique features in web design scarce.

- 'If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold'

In his conclusion “You Are The Product,” Copely insists that if you are indeed interacting over social platforms, you are the product of that space. He ties this concept with Franco Berardi’s ‘Semiocapital’ theory, which is characterized by the virtualization and subsequent financialization of all mental activity and human interactions.