Exploring The Digital Ruins Of ‘Second Life’
“I logged into “Second Life” in the year 2018 A.D. It still exists, sort of.”
Can Amazon’s Alexa Be Your Friend?
A look at the rise of digital assistants, and how Alexa is not only getting smarter, but becoming an emotional companion for people who face loneliness and social anxiety.
Is This Thing On?
Why is it so rare for audio to go viral?
It’s hardly a fair fight, audio vs. cat video, but it’s the one that’s fought on Facebook every day. DiMeo’s glum conclusion is an exaggeration of what Giaever reads as the moral of her own story: “People will watch a bad video more than [they will listen to] good audio,” she says.
Those in the Internet audio business tend to give two explanations for this disparity. “The greatest reason is structural,” says Jesse Thorn, who hosts a public radio show called “Bullseye” and runs a podcast network called Maximum Fun. “Audio usage takes place while you’re doing something else.” You can listen while you drive or do the dishes, an insuperable competitive advantage over text or video, which transforms into a disadvantage when it comes to sharing the listening experience with anyone out of earshot. “When you’re driving a car, you’re not going to share anything,” says Thorn.
