failings of the modern internet

Escape: the perks of being unavailable

we’re going to look back at how we designed the world around computers with the same regret that we look at how we’ve designed cities around cars

THIS is the kind of information I want from the internet. The sharing of unpolished “here’s what worked for me” anecdotes and napkin sketches.

There is no destination, only more embarkations and inceptions.

My latest column at The New Yorker is about the revenge of homepages: Why we're turning toward individual websites as the platform era of the internet continues to disintegrate.

I started working on this piece because I've found myself going to homepages more often. It's a way to get a controlled, curated look at what a publication offers, and a ch... See more

TikTok is creative and sprawling and often strange and anarchic, which mirrors the internet more broadly. There are few rules; the platform takes all comers. Chaos is inevitable. You can find absolutely anything; it’s incredible to witness how many different ways there are to be, how creative (or uncreative) people are, how we crave attention, hopi... See more

In his view, everything society now produced—including science and technology—served industry, not humanity, and thus was increasingly being purposed not to enrich our lives but to psychologically condition us so we wouldn’t resist what was being done to us and to the earth.

There is so much I loved in those archives. There is so much I would delight in rediscovering. But I can’t find what matters in the morass. I’ve given up on trying.