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PH Patti Harrison On Uncanny Valley | WIRED

“I think that social media as we have it is hell. It's truly the most literal panopticon — we're bugs trapped under a little glass.”

Uncanny Valley | WIRED · September 2026

“I think that social media as we have it is hell. It's truly the most literal panopticon — we're bugs trapped under a little glass.” — Patti Harrison, Uncanny Valley | WIRED

Context

Harrison is still banned from X, which the host raised on Uncanny Valley after noting that other suspended accounts were reinstated. She went on to argue the deeper problem is that users are conditioned to attack each other individually rather than the companies that test features for addictiveness. Later in the same conversation she defends early social media — the Xanga blog she wrote jokes on as a teenager in rural Ohio — as a real tool for connection.

Transcript

Uncanny Valley | WIRED Around 15:33 into the episode
Patti Harrison

Yeah.

Katie Drummond

Yeah.

Patti Harrison

I think that social media as we have it is hell. I think it is a, it's like truly the most literal panopticon. We're bugs trapped under a little glass and it's self it's hard because I think the frustration is that there's there's multiple frustrations. One is that we all see that this is evil, but I think the other layers of that is we are also conditioned to attack each other individually instead of attacking the like systemic issues, the larger problems, which is that they are like clinically testing these features to make sure that people become addicted. And I think people are embarrassed to admit that they're addicted to Instagram or their phones or, or they'll say it in a jokey way. But I do think it is, I think it's a systemic thing. I think these companies are really in a very like standardly evil way doing things they know will affect us in the negative in the whole to make money and to keep people trapped…

Katie Drummond

there's there's an entire global economy running through these platforms and that was something i was curious about is to what extent do you feel like instagram in particular you just have to be there i mean i think i read that tim robinson found you on instagram and thought you were hilarious…

Patti Harrison

well i definitely think in a very short amount of time too social media has changed significantly i think the social media that i had when i was in middle school and high school which was zenga And my face. Zanga. Zanga is like live journal. It's a blog. It was a blogging site where you could like…

Katie Drummond

I am very gullible, which is a really bad trait for a journalist. But

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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