How to Leave an Internet That’s Always in Crisis

Lately I have been reading a lot about The Internet and what it’s doing to us. I find it funny, if a little tedious. Because of course there’s no canonical experience of Being Online. Other than being followed around by mystifying ads because you clicked on something or, as they say, “fit a demographic,” there is no “us.” Everyone’s time here is di

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there’s this struggle in my head. Is the world ending, or is it a nice day and I’m getting coffee? Obviously, it’s not a binary thing, but living this way is sometimes brain-scrambling. It’s not like the constant doom and gloom of Twitter was making me a better climate activist. Instead I’d be paralyzed. Twitter incentivizes you to live in this con... See more

AMANDA MONTELL: I really appreciated this video from Kurzgesagt, which articulates how the current hyper-connected state of the internet has destroyed our collective mental health. The video suggested the glory days of social media were actually the early 2000s, when like-minded users could gather in niche, siloed forums to discuss common interests... See more

the internet used to be a place! Or at least it was for me. I love how the internet exposes the weird and funny things about being a person alive in the world.

When it comes to the internet and our media ecosystems, it is easy to hurl vague, blanket critiques like Social media is making everything feel worse. That is mostly true, by the way—but it’s obvious. Which is why I was drawn to a recent idea from writer and technology theorist L.M. Sacasas: The internet, as a mediator of human interactions, is not... See more