The New Analog

This is where we take our headphones off. Noise has value. It communicates location, proximity, and depth. It

tests the limits of our individual perception, and binds us together in shared time. Why shouldn’t it want to be expensive

record purchased in a store is rarely heard just once. It is relatively expensive and will likely be listened to accordingly: on different occasions, with different people, for different reasons

However, Facebook sorts those posts using algorithms to determine which it considers signal—bringing those to our attention—and screening out those that are, in its estimation, noise

We are each an isolated signal to social media, just as its algorithms deliver us nothing but isolated signals

What was built in their wake is social media. Facebook launched in 2004; Twitter in 2006; Instagram in 2010

noise conveys information we use for a full perception of sound, including its location, proximity, and context

But to benefit from that savings, you had to accept Napster’s definition of music as the signal conveyed by a digital sound file.

Do you

The signal of a book was redefined as title, author, and price. The rest was noise, to paraphrase Shakespeare via Alex Ross

In digital media, signal alone is treated as information, and noise is eliminated. This represents a loss of information—the information communicated by noise.