Agalia Tan

This is not to say that influencers such as Clavicular deserve no blame for their choices—only that they have come of age in a media environment where fealty to an audience and online performance seem so second nature that they adopt the logic of the attention economy by default. Making content becomes one’s only belief structure. The Claviculars... See more

Who do you secretly envy—and what does that reveal about what you truly value?

Physical affordances are things like stairs and handles and benches. Conversational affordances are things like digressions and confessions and bold claims that beg for a rejoinder. Talking to another person is like rock climbing, except you are my rock wall and I am yours. If you reach up, I can grab onto your hand, and we can both hoist ourselves... See more

The Beckham saga illustrates this shift vividly. Brooklyn Beckham’s public denunciations of his parents use the now-familiar language of control, emotional safety, boundaries, and self-preservation. His claims may or may not be justified – that is not the point. What matters is the cultural script available to him. The script says: if a... See more

It occurs to me, much later than it occurred to the archivists, that we have never possessed such a complete and damning record of our past interactions. I can tell you every college scholarship I never got. Every sale at The Gap for the past 18 years. Every flight I’ve ever taken, anywhere in the world. Most grocery lists, news alerts,... See more

When you write online, there are strong incentives to write prose that is tightly packed with insights and fast moving and a little intense—to catch and hold attention. That can feel limiting. I wonder what is the slowest, calmest piece I could write that would still work?