The messaging about social media is so confusing. On one hand, it’s the domain of the embarrassingly anti-intellectual, attention-hungry, vain, stupid, trollish... Yet on the other hand, social media can also supposedly propel people to the presidency and shape an entire generation’s opinion on geopolitical issues. So what does it mean to advocate... See more

With Instagram there was the idea that my life is constantly available for perception and evaluation by other people. I had these thoughts: I’d upload a photo and then I’d view my Instagram story and try to pretend to be somebody else—a stranger—and imagine how they’d see me. I’d be trying to present myself to be legible in a certain way to... See more

In a 2017 interview, Ev Williams (the founder of Twitter), said something that has stuck with me since: “the trouble with algorithms, is that it rewards extremes. Say you’re driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. The internet interprets behavior like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it... See more