We’ve Been Thinking About the Internet All Wrong

For years, a primary metaphor for the internet has been the “town square,” an endless space for free expression where everyone can have their say. But as scaled digital platforms have grown to dominate most of modern life, metaphors centered solely on speech have failed to explain our current civic dysfunction.

Perhaps the better way to understand the internet is to compare it to a much older infrastructure problem: citywide sanitation systems. Posted content is akin to water; websites and other interfaces are analogous to pumps; and unintended feedback loops correspond to risk of infection. A public-health framework for understanding the internet would focus not on online information itself but on how it is generated, spread, and consumed via digital platforms.