Information Inspirations

Abstract

Taking a step backward from overt digital practices, this chapter looks at a digital artifact so widely used that it has become communicative infrastructure: the web browser. Its framing of our entire online information content and practice shapes digital identity through interactions with online services, while its customizability encourages perceptions of individual, rather than social, technocultural identity. This chapter looks at the Blackbird browser, specifically targeted to Black users, to unpack how browsers can shape Black identity from a technocultural framework. While digital interfaces are so mutable that they encourage beliefs of universalism and individualization, this chapter argues that racial digital practices can and do shape information design and behaviors.