A bold and imaginative critique of the hidden costs of digital life – and a manifesto for a better future . . . At the turn of the millennium, digital technologies seemed to have immense promise for transforming our society. With these powerful new tools, the thinking went, we would be free to live our best lives, connected to our communities in ways full of infinite potential. A quarter of a century on, this form of utopianism seems like a cruel mirage. Our lives are more fragmented and pressure-filled as ever, as we race to keep up with technologies that manipulate, command, and drain us at every turn. So what happened? In Against Platforms , technologist and creator Mike Pepi lays out an explanation of what went wrong – and a manifesto for putting it right. The key, says Pepi, is that we have been taught that digital technologies are neutral tools, transparent, easily understood, and here to serve us. The reality, Pepi says, is that they are laden with assumptions and collateral consequences – ideology, in other words. And it is this hidden ideology that must be dismantled if we are to harness technology for the fullest expression of our humanity. One of Inside Hook's "10 Books You Should Be Reading This January" One of The Next Big Idea Book Club's "Hightly Anicipated Books of 2025" Included on Paris Marx's Disconnected “Critical Tech Reading List for Early 2025” One of The Saturday Evening Post's "Six New Books You Can Resolve to Read in 2025" "The value of this book is in debunking self-serving claims of digital technology. . . . An unsparing exposé of how digital platforms stifle personal and collective efficacy." - Kirkus Reviews ". . .what makes Pepi’s book invaluable at the outset of 2025 is its clear reframing of the tools that got us here, and the bogus ideals that led us to trust them as fundamentally neutral." - Miles Klee for Rolling Stone "Mike Pepi shows how we can embrace the promise of technology in humanity's service without getting swept away into the utopianism of the tech bros or the cynically proffered fantasies of venture capitalists. Yes, we can transcend our love-hate relationship with the net." —Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now "Against Platforms is a searing critique of the platforms that hold our culture, politics, media—and lives—in an increasingly tight stranglehold. Mike Pepi makes a passionate argument against Silicon Valley’s utopian vision, and offers hope that technology can still be deployed in our best interests. This fascinating book is a timely and meticulous examination of a supremely important topic." —Peter Ward, author of The Price of Immortality: The Race to Live Forever Mike Pepi is a technologist and author who has written widely about the intersection between culture and the Internet. An art critic and theorist, he self-identifies as part of the “tech left” – digital natives who want to reshape technology as a force for progressive good. His writing has been published in Spike , Frieze , e-flux , and other venues. Introduction A solitary metronome clicks back and forth in a mostly empty warehouse. A record player starts to spin. “All I Ever Need is You” by Sonny and Cher plays as floodlights flicker on to reveal that the warehouse contains a large grouping of artist tools. Then we hear a whirring, and a room-sized hydraulic press slowly starts its descent. First it crushes a video arcade machine. As it lowers, it reaches paint cans of various colors, splattering paint over a piano that is crushed a half second later. We see the metronome again, but it’s quickly obliterated by the weight of the press. We catch a glimpse of a clay classical bust a moment before it is compressed beyond recognition. A drafting table is pulverized. Paintbrushes, guitars, and camera lenses are flattened. At the very end of the sequence, we see lifelike emoji balls squished into powder by the presses’ last push. A final puff of air caps off the entire assault. A voice interjects: “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.” This harrowing scene was a video for Apple’s latest iPad. The strategy was certainly bold. Why were so many precious objects destroyed? What message is being sent with such an aggressive display? Everything you once used to create, explore, and make meaning in the world has collapsed onto a single platform and is now accessible on a single device. Seems nice, however the imagery is a bit too literal. For decades, Apple has been something of a cultural and economic hegemon. Their devices started the mobile revolution; their app store hosts some of this young centuries most iconic—and infamous—social media and digital start-ups. The devices Apple has invented have been in the vanguard of the addictive rewiring of our social and intellectual lives; they are the first things we see when we wake in the morning and the last things we see before bed. There was a deeper subtext around Appl