Figure 1 — Coherence vs. Dispersion

Mode: Dispersing

Dispersing (Figure 1a): The energy is all there. The frequencies are all present. But without phase relationships, the contributions cancel — the packet spreads into background noise. This is the default state of any real medium: coherence requires explanation; dispersion does not.

Figure 2 — Your audience, after the algorithm

Followers / page likes

10,000

Year you started

2014

Organic reach % · 2012–2024

Figure 2 · Source: Hootsuite / We Are Social data series. Facebook organic page reach declined from ~16% in 2012 to under 2% by 2022 — a change to the dispersion relation of the medium. Your community is still there. The platform changed the speed at which your frequencies travel.

Figure 3 — Live: sources cited in this article

Figure 3 · What you're seeing: Each source cited in this article, checked live in your browser right now. A 2024 Pew study found 25% of all webpages from 2013–2023 are no longer accessible. From 2013 specifically: 38%. Civil society's memory is stored on servers it doesn't own, subject to terms it didn't negotiate.