culture

TikTok/Reels skits just feel like the glossy, expertly-edited versions of the inside jokes that kids make at summer camp talent shows...Most of the creators...are non-art minded amateurs working in templated formats...“[D]igital vaudeville” says it all — it's just not an "inventive creative practice that expands what is possible with art."

And in a... See more

"Tradwives and girlbosses end up in the same quadrant," she said. "They are actually both trying to cut their work in half."

Other practices, while not as deceptive, are wildly untraditional. Green lattes and smoothies are prepared with shortcuts (batched concentrate, nicknamed batcha) and flavorings (banana bread!) that send ripples of horror down the spines of matcha purists. Baristas inhale so much airborne green powder that they joke about coming down with matcha... See more

One thing happening in the background here is that marriage rates are declining most among low-income and low-education groups. That means the marriages that do happen are more likely to involve higher-education, higher-income couples who have always had a lower divorce rate.

Marriage is getting rarer, older, and more stable. Consider the typical 25-year old American woman. If she was born in 1940, she had an 80 percent chance of being married. If born in the 1990, she had a ~20 percent chance of being married.

In my opinion, that deserves our respect. Being born with fine cheekbones or a chiseled jawline is no accomplishment; figuring out how to use a bunch of Korean treatments and products to look more like you want to look is a feat of personal initiative and intelligence. As the beauty industry becomes more and more technologically advanced, beauty... See more

the entire internet is steadily turning into TikTok-style short-form video

We read for all sorts of reasons: is it to say that you’ve read that book? Are you looking for the escapism of being immersed in a new world? Do you want to refine your thinking on something? Reading can be entertainment, intellectual curiosity, escapism, relaxation, or a million other things — no one reason is intrinsically nobler than any other,... See more

Listening to a book or podcast at some insane speed – well beyond what you could comprehend, process, and think about in any reasonable way – puts the entire value of that media on the acquisition of information. I’ve certainly felt this, a desire to “have read” a book, to finish it and be able to place it in the collection in my mind of things... See more