“The famous subreddit started as a forum for one man to ask about his workplace behavior. Seven years later, it’s become a platform where millions of people discuss good, bad, and everything in between. How did it get here? And can it actually help make people better?”
Internet
Mark in the Middle
“There was no obvious way to placate liberal employees and conservative users at the same time.” Casey Newton reports on the dynamics inside Facebook and shares a series of leaked audio recordings from internal meetings this summer.
‘It’s An iPad, Not An usPad’: Douglas Rushkoff on Digital Isolation
“There’s no Dropbox plan that will let us upload body and soul to the cloud. We are still here on the ground, with the same people and on the same planet we are being encouraged to leave behind.”
The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods
“There’s no Dropbox plan that will let us upload body and soul to the cloud. We are still here on the ground, with the same people and on the same planet we are being encouraged to leave behind.” Author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff asks: how much are we allowed to use technology and our […]
The Great Fiber-Optic Fraudster of Alaska
To this day, only Elizabeth Pierce knows why she defrauded partners and investors by forging contract signatures.
‘I’m Incredulous That People Do This Repeatedly. The Second Book Thing Is So Real.’
Mary H.K. Choi discusses her latest novel, which examines how “holograms and digital envoys” represent us online, and why it feels like her “second book signals the death of my first.”
How Google Discovered the Value of Surveillance
In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.
Why “Florida Man” Really Isn’t All that Funny
“Is Florida Man a hero, a villain or a victim? And is it still okay to laugh along?” (No, it’s not.)
How the Cosby Story Finally Went Viral — And Why It Took So Long
A journalist who reported on the accusations long before they went viral wonders, “What kind of profession am I in, where stories have no logical reason for unfolding?”
Twitter Won’t Miss You: A Digital Detox Reading List (and Roadmap)
Maybe it’s time for an internet break… after you read this.
