Collapse

cruel optimism: Lauren Berlant’s seminal coinage for “when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing.” In Berlant’s usage, optimism is “the force that moves you out of yourself and into the world” in search of something—some sense of self or state of being—that you can’t generate on your own. This optimistic relation can feel... See more

When cars became more fuel-efficient, we didn’t save on fuel – we just made cars bigger and drove more. This phenomenon is called the ‘Jevons Paradox’, named after economist William Stanley Jevons who observed in 1865 that more efficient coal use led to more consumption, not less.

Conspiratorial thinking is no longer just for the tinfoil-hat crowd. The very structure of the internet encourages a kind of hyper-paranoia, where every piece of content feels like it’s leading somewhere bigger.

The way platforms serve us information—fractured, unpredictable, contextless—creates a feeling of constant destabilisation. What’s real?... See more

The internet has conditioned us to constantly seek new information, as if becoming a sponge of bad news will eventually yield the final piece of a puzzle. But there is also such a thing as having enough information.