Program

A closer look at Program

What Program is about

This page is an essay about the idea of "program" as media: how 20th-century radio and television programs evolved into programmable, digital media and how that changes who controls information. It traces how programmable media moved from TV scheduling and VCR timers to software-driven recommendation systems and interfaces that shape attention and behavior.

The author cites the Principles of Technorealism and names its original contributors, and quotes Douglas Rushkoff’s summary idea: "program or be programmed." The piece links programmatic media to surveillance capitalism and to concerns about standards, privacy and public sovereignty online.

What you can read and take away here

You can read historical examples (television comedy blocks, VCRs, DVDs, RSS feeds) and contemporary concerns (recommendation algorithms, metrics that standardize attention, dark-pattern flows like the Amazon cancellation maze). The essay argues programmable media requires active engagement and literacy: using tools like RSS is presented as an example of deliberately creating your own program rather than accepting an algorithmic one.

The page also mentions concrete incidents and sources: the Technorealist manifesto contributors, Aza Raskin’s regret about infinite scroll, and an FTC settlement related to Amazon’s cancellation flow; it references a GDPR complaint by noyb about dict.cc’s consent agreement and attributes a quote to Felix Mikolasch.

Who might find this useful

Readers interested in media theory, digital literacy, and how interfaces and code shape public life will find the essay relevant. People who prefer curated control (for example, RSS users) or who worry about privacy, surveillance capitalism, and UX that manipulates behavior will recognize the concerns raised here.

It is a reflective, argumentative piece rather than a how-to guide or a product page; it’s aimed at readers who want to think about the societal implications of programmable media.

Questions people ask about Program

Does the page explain how to learn programming?

No, the page discusses why programming literacy matters and gives examples, but it does not provide lessons or step-by-step instructions for learning to code.

Does the page name sources or people behind the ideas?

Yes; it names the twelve original Technorealists, quotes Douglas Rushkoff and C. Thi Nguyen, and references incidents involving Aza Raskin, Amazon, and a noyb GDPR complaint about dict.cc.

Is this a technical manual or a news article?

Neither exactly: it is an essay combining historical context, media theory, and examples to argue for active engagement with programmable media.

Program was shared on NexURLs by Nexis on November 3, 2026, in Learning & Books.