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Blog

Reading: Taylor Lorenz’s “Extremely Online”

As I was finishing up Ben Smith’s Traffic, I messaged Taylor Lorenz that finishing Ben’s book had made...
Earnest PettieOct 1, 2023Oct 1, 2023
Blog

Experiencing: Art Laboe Connection

It’s the end of a very long week in what has been a very long month during a...
Earnest PettieSep 23, 2023Oct 1, 2023
Site updates

Fresh Start

I lost my last website, which was less one site and really 20 years of blog posts from...
Earnest PettieSep 10, 2023
Essays

Meta-Irony and Gen Z

An explanation of meta-irony and why it's a standard mode of discourse for the digitally native Gen Z.
Earnest PettieSep 7, 2023Jan 6, 2025
Essays

Liminal Spaces may be the most 2020 of all trends

A modern media phenomenon is a reminder of the purgatory of the pandemic.
Earnest PettieSep 6, 2023Jan 6, 20251 Comment on Liminal Spaces may be the most 2020 of all trends
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Quick thoughts

1 month ago

What is social media, and what is the distinction, if any, between social media and social network sites/apps? I just want to see if there is consensus.

2 months ago

Pointless take: Last Christmas is not a Christmas song. It’s a New Year’s song.

2 months ago

There’s a loneliness epidemic because a whole generation has grown up without Tom from Myspace automatically being their friend.

5 months ago

Cliches aren’t born; they develop from the abuse of repetition. I think that the speed and scale at which generative AI works will likely send certain phrases and constructs speeding into their second lives as cliches faster than we’ve ever experienced. The em-dash discourse was just the beginning.

5 months ago

My theory. All the people in the drug ads you see on TV exist in the same world. They’re in a horrible Truman Show style environment where they are being coerced into demonstrating positive effects of the drugs. They can’t not smile or they get moved to “the control group.”

RSS Books

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  • Earnestp wants to read Generation X by Douglas Coupland January 6, 2025
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