Large parasocial platforms transformed the internet into a hostile and impersonal place. They feed our FOMO to keep us clicking. They exaggerate our differences for "engagement". They create engines for stardom to keep us creeping. They bait us into nutritionless and sensationalist content. Humanity cannot subsist on hype alone.

Small and sincere co... See more

Whatever we do, the internet isn’t returning to old-school then-common interfaces like FTP and Gopher, or organizations operating their own mail servers again instead of off-the-shelf solutions like G-Suite. But some of what we need is already here, especially on the web. Look at the resurgence of RSS feeds, email newsletters and blogs, as we disco... See more

As Charli explores the highs and lows of womanhood, what it means to be a so-called ‘brat’ is revealed - life is messy and complicated and as a result, we roll our eyes, complain over the most trivial things, cry too much or not enough, feel hotly insecure, question everything and hold on to madness until it explodes.

Yep, this goes for just about everyone. The CEO of that hot shot new company that everyone loves? He’s probably never run a company before. That director who just started managing other managers? She’s probably only managed individual contributors before. We are all constantly being asked to step up to new challenges and help lead. This is just as ... See more

If the floor mattress is the symbol of an austere (if fulfilling) life, the Boy Room is the product of a more indulgent lifestyle, one that produces a clutter of empty beer cans, crumpled tissues (overflowing a rarely emptied wastebasket), and bunched-up bedsheets.

Users keep telling the app over and over again what they want: To post photos for their friends. And yet for some reason Meta continually takes these learnings and decides that people avoiding Instagram’s front-facing features by increasingly using Direct Messages means they must want to *spins wheel of things Adam Mosseri scribbles into a notepad ... See more

Either way, what has been lost since the era of the human search engine is the joy of a distinct voice—while we can now find out almost anything automatically, the answer won’t be delivered with warmth or flair.

It occurs to me, much later than it occurred to the archivists, that we have never possessed such a complete and damning record of our past interactions. I can tell you every college scholarship I never got. Every sale at The Gap for the past 18 years. Every flight I’ve ever taken, anywhere in the world. Most grocery lists, news alerts, heartbreaks... See more