Ask the Author: Per Grankvist
Answered Questions (6)
Per Grankvist
I once considered myself to be reasonably well-informed about US domestic politics. Since working as a volunteer on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, I have followed US politics from a distance, with interest and admittedly through a liberal filter. This confirmation bias left me unable to understand how anyone could consider voting for Donald Trump. Fascinated by my own inability to grasp the idea, I manipulated Twitter’s algorithm into recommending likeminded accounts so that I could create two separate bubbles fed by Republican and Democrat Twitter users, respectively. This allowed me to begin studying the bubbles from within, hearing the arguments as if I were an entirely normal Trump or Clinton supporter. In character, the bubbles were extremely similar to one another. Each had its influential voices, its fair share of fake news, its rowdy supporters, and loyal media outlets routinely ridiculing the other candidate. In both bubbles, astonishment was rife as to how the hell any reasonable person could even consider voting for the other bubble’s dimwit candidate. Both bubbles seemed to scent victory. And yet, both sides expressed great surprise when the election results were in. So that got me thinking about how technology seems to make it harder, not easier, to understand the world.
Per Grankvist
Learning new stuff gets me thinking about how that relates to things I already know or about who it changes the way I used to think about certain things. After a while, I have enough of these questions popping around in my head to start writing draft.
Per Grankvist
As I'm writing this, I'm putting the final touches out a book about how technology has made it harder for us to understand the world. It's about filter bubbles. fake news and algorithms and an attempt to help people understand how they affect our every day life in so many ways. The book is called "the Big Bubble" and will be out i January 2018 (in English and Swedish). I hope you'll like it.
Per Grankvist
Start small. By that I mean that you should start writing something short, get it published on Medium.com or a blog and start getting feedback and reactions. That's how I learned: writing shorter stuff and then trying to improve.
Also: read a lot. It's the best way to develop your language and eventually to fins your own unique voice.
Also: read a lot. It's the best way to develop your language and eventually to fins your own unique voice.
Per Grankvist
Being a non-fiction writer, it's the opportunity do give into a topic or trying to understand a chain of events and learn about how everything is somehow connected to everything else.
Per Grankvist
Taking a power nap or going for a walk always seem to help me. And when that doesn't work, I start writing on something else.
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