The Digital Human

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Digital Human: Series 16: Gentrification

Gentrification

Series 16

BBC Radio 4 - The Digital Human, Series 16, Gentrification

Aleks Krotoski asks 'has the internet been gentrified?'

Aleks Krotoski asks if the internet has been gentrified.

Gentrification. It’s a constant cycle in the offline world. Run down areas with cheap rent attract a young arty crowd, business moves in when the area has a new hip image, and suddenly everyone wants to live there and the original residents find themselves priced out of the neighbourhood and so move on to a new place to start the cycle again.

But, we don’t just live in cities in the digital age. The internet was once a haven for freaks, geeks and weirdos, but now that everyone has poured into the same digital space, has it too been gentrified? And if it has… where can people go?

Aleks Krotoski explores how digital communities have shifted and evolved, through both the very human development of communities, and the technological changes of algorithms and automation that have like the highways and infrastructure of the physical world, have split communities and fundamentally changed how we live online. She discovers out how the cycle of progress has both helped and hurt us in the digital age, and finds out if the artists, the freaks, the geeks and the weirdos still have a place to call home.

The Digital Human: Series 16

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Aleks Krotoski explores life in the digital age.

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The Digital Human

Series 16

Gentrification

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