dreaming of a better internet

“The internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and then to an algorithmic reality. In this reality, the primary task of these platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as much revenue as possible from human vanity, avarice, and narcissism.”

Instead of discussing whether the internet is good or bad, I suggest we start by asking: do you want to show me your internet?

I have thousands of photos of my children but few that I’ve set aside to revisit. I have records of virtually every text I’ve sent since I was in college but no idea how to find the ones that meant something. I spent years blasting my thoughts to millions of people on X and Facebook even as I fell behind on correspondence with dear friends. I have... See more

The URL bar is perhaps the most fundamental part of browsing the internet, and yet it’s something I haven’t thought about in at least five years. That’s because I’m often just going to one of four sites that autocomplete the moment I type the first letter, and because I’m a Chrome user, the URL bar is interchangeable with the search bar, so when I... See more

Scraping the Social: “We are unknown to ourselves—and with good reason.” Friedrich Nietzsche—“Even the retards are starting to figure it out.” (comment)—“In data we trust.” Priceonomics—“The Internet fails to scale gracefully.” Chris Ellis—“I want to be surprised by my own bot”—“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”... See more