“After a decade under the influence of music algorithms, a look at what streaming services afford the most engaged fans and what lingers below the surface.”
Internet
Posted inEditor's Pick
In the Dark
This is an in-depth look at the rise of government-led internet blackouts around the world over the past decade, since the Mubarak regime’s shutdown of the internet in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011. Whole countries, including Sudan, Uganda, and Myanmar, have gone offline for days on end, as leaders try to cripple their […]
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Taking Stock
Rob Horning explores the term “creator” in this essay on labor, exploitation, and content production and consumption on the internet. “Creator,” like “creativity,” is essentially a null term that signifies nothing about one’s activity but instead marks one’s limitless availability — a willingness to make anything at all in one’s life into content for sale.
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“Take Her Down”: Inside eBay’s Stalking Campaign Against a Natick Couple
“Amazon. Etsy. eBay. Lots of companies appeared in David and Ina Steiner’s E-commerce newsletter. Only one tried to take them out.”
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The Great Beyond
“While it is not new for technology to mediate our relationship to death, the interactivity and public-ness of in-memoriam profiles is distinctly novel.”
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On the Internet, We’re Always Famous
“Never before in history have so many people been under the gaze of so many strangers.”
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‘This Is Going to Change the World’
“As the new millennium dawned, a mysterious invention from a charismatic millionaire became a viral sensation—then went down in flames. Ever since, I’ve wondered: Was it all my fault?”
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The Day the Good Internet Died
“Did a Good Internet ever even exist, or am I just nostalgic for my youth?”
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A People’s History of Black Twitter, Part I
“We make spaces out of spaces where we were not intended to be. That’s what we do.” This is the first installment in a three-part oral history series on Black Twitter.
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Why Can’t We Be Friends
“Podcasts and other forms of ‘parasocial’ media reframe friendship as monetized self-care.