We’re On YouTube (And We’re Coming for Zuck)

Mark Zuckerberg keeps killing friendship.

Hey friends,

Big news: Life with Machines is now on YouTube in its own dedicated channel (no more freeloading off my YouTube!). This feels a little ironic given what we’re talking about in our first video, but here we are…using the machine to rage against the machine.

Lord Zuckerberg’s Master Plan

Let me paint you a picture: Mark Zuckerberg took our human friendships and ground them down to a fine pulp. His algorithm made us hate the people we actually know and love. And now? Now he’s manufacturing synthetic friends so he can monetize that too.

First, Facebook flattened friendship into a binary; you’re either “friends” or you’re not, and everyone from your boss to your ex to your actual best friend gets the same label. Then the algorithm decided which of your “friends” you’d actually see, turning your relationships into engagement metrics. And now, in the final boss move, Big Tech is pushing AI companions as the solution to the loneliness epidemic they created.

It’s almost beautiful in its audacity. Almost.

But Wait, There’s Hope

Here’s the thing: the dystopian future Zuckerberg and Big Tech have imagined doesn’t have to be our reality. And that’s what this video is really about.

We dig into how we got here (it’s a wild ride through Facebook friend requests from your boss, the News Feed’s assault on chronology, and the commodification of literally everything). But more importantly, we explore what we could build instead.

I’m talking about tech that actually supports human relationships instead of replacing them. Tools that help you coordinate with friends, not algorithms that decide which friends you get to see. Platforms designed for intimacy and context, not infinite scale and engagement. Technology that knows when to get out of the way.

The video covers:

• How Facebook systematically destroyed different dimensions of friendship

• Why AI companions are a feature, not a bug, of social media’s business model

• Real alternatives that are being built right now by people who actually give a damn (❤️ to New_ Public and Roundabout)

• What it looks like to refuse to let this version of online become our total reality

Your Mission (Should You Choose to Accept It)

Watch the video. Do subscribe to the channel if you’re into it. But more than that—and I mean this—don’t just hit like and subscribe. We’re not Lord Zuckerberg over here:

Text a friend. Call somebody. Share something this brought up for you with a real person in your life. Let’s figure out a new way to play this game together.

Because here’s what I know to be true: We are living beings. We are alive for so much more than turning billionaires into trillionaires or driving charts up and to the right into oblivion. We deserve healthier relationships with ourselves, with other people, with Mother Nature herself.

We need to touch grass. Literally.

Nintendo Wii had it right back in 2006: “Why not take a break?” Let’s all press that plus button and figure out a new way to play.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

And then? Close this tab. Go talk to someone you love.

- Baraunde

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Thanks to Associate Producer Layne Deyling Cherland for editorial and production support and to my executive assistant Mae Abellanosa.