Being a Luddite Is Fun Again
404 Media Janus Rose
A loose-knit collective called the Luddite Renaissance organized the "Summer of Ludd," a week-long festival of anti-tech events in New York City held entirely offline and advertised through posters, phone lines, and word-of-mouth rather than social media. The events included theatrical protests like a mock trial of OpenAI's Sam Altman, phone-free raves, and skill-shares, drawing hundreds of participants mostly from Gen-Z who are increasingly critical of Big Tech. The organizers argue that public events designed to be participatory, unmonetizable, and resistant to documentation on social media can build movements and demonstrate that extractive tech platforms are not indispensable to modern life.
Why it matters
As tech backlash hits the mainstream, the ‘Summer of Ludd’ proves we don’t need social media to hang out and have a good time.
