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Paper short abstract

This presentation examines how hype and filter bubbles form feedback loops that entrench techno-authoritarianism. Analysing moments when these loops rupture (particularly within or about the digital sphere), I explore how such “loopholes” can inform anti-authoritarian strategies in STS.

Paper long abstract

Hype bubbles - spectacular claims about emerging technologies - are diffused through pop culture narratives, often leading to the formation of filter bubbles, while filter bubbles - digital or otherwise - act as echo chambers that intensify exclusionary and populist homophily; which, in turn, creates the social conditions for new types of hype. Drawing on Hofstadter’s notion of the “strange loop” and insights from informal conversations with the Hype Studies network, I theorise on the feedback loop between hype shaping filter bubbles, and filter bubbles reinforcing new hypes, consolidating techno-authoritarianism through simultaneous/selective narrow content filtering and grandiose technological visions. Often, when a hype bubble bursts, filter bubble outcomes become visible, while the implications of filter bubbles are often masked by the hype surrounding new technologies. Yet, within this loop exist loopholes: moments of disillusionment/techno-refusal and un/intentional movement beyond comfort zones where normativity is disrupted, and opportunities for engagement, critique, and resistance emerge.

This 'technopop' analysis - a study of techno-infused populism and techno-amused pop culture - situates bubble loops and their loopholes as crucial empirical sites within STS. I demonstrate how rhetorical exaggeration, pop cultural resonance, and algorithmic sorting are entangled. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, I illustrate how actors identify and exploit these loopholes, sometimes subverting, sometimes reinforcing totalising tendencies. Ultimately, I propose that “estranging with the bubble” (to paraphrase Haraway) - a process of constant critique of bubbles through continuous perspective shift - invites STS to explore what can be done, and undone, with strange bubbly loopholes.