I’ve never clicked “Accept” when a website has requested to send notifications through the browser. What kind of notifications are these sites sending? What does Semafor need to notify me of?
How to deal with the feeling of too many “trends”
There's an opinion becoming dominant in the world of "trends" that the Internet is generating too many trends too quickly for anyone to keep up with, that the word itself is becoming meaningless as a result. I think this perspective is the antidote.
How Coyote VS Acme and Alicia Keys connect to my favorite corner of the internet
The NFL's altering of Alicia Keys's Super Bowl performance and Warner Bros. cancellation of Coyote vs. Acme call to mind one of my favorite corners of the internet, Lost Media.
Flowers: Chicken Noodle Soup (a personal reflection)
It’s 2006. You open YouTube in Firefox and see the Flash-based video player showing low-resolution footage of kids...
2024: Year of the Billionfluencer
The rise of billionfluencers marks a shift as billionaires are now seen as objects of fandom, wielding great influence through social media, directing discourse and attention.
Why music is memes and we make the hits
In today's landscape, the popularity of a song is often less about a song speaking to you and more about a song speaking for you.
Is Everything Fandom?
As the things that traditionally bound us together have receded in our social lives and the internet is increasingly that social glue, have we allowed fandoms to replace institutions in our lives?
Melrose Place, Milkshake Ducks, and Media Viruses
A decades-old media theory has me wondering whether trending discourse is becoming an antidote to viral media.
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.
Liminal Spaces may be the most 2020 of all trends
A modern media phenomenon is a reminder of the purgatory of the pandemic.
Books
- Earnestp finished reading Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken January 18, 2025Earnestp finished reading Ultra-Processed People
- Earnestp started reading Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken January 6, 2025Earnestp started reading Ultra-Processed People
- Earnestp wants to read Generations by Neil Strauss January 6, 2025Earnestp wants to read Generations
- Earnestp wants to read Generation X by Douglas Coupland January 6, 2025Earnestp wants to read Generation X
- Earnestp finished reading The kill order by James Dashner January 6, 2025Earnestp finished reading The kill order
- Review of "The kill order" (3 stars): Serviceable prequel January 6, 2025None
- Earnestp finished reading Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz September 22, 2024Earnestp finished reading Extremely Online
- Review of "Traffic" (5 stars): Great telling of the evolution of the commercial Internet September 9, 2023