Ben Popper takes a look at Koko, a startup with an app that helps people connect and provide emotional support to peers and, in the process, allows them to recognize and “rethink” their own problems.
Technology
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Empathy Layer
Koko offers peer-to-peer support to promote emotional well-being. Can the app—which lets strangers and bots become amateur therapists—create a safer internet?
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Ever Stop Playing Video Games
Many Americans have replaced work hours with game play — and ended up happier. Which wouldn’t surprise most gamers.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
When a YouTube Video Almost Made the Modular Smartphone Happen
The story of Google’s groundbreaking, buzz-generating modular smartphone — aka Project Ara — from bang to whimper.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Dream of Ara: Inside the Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Revolutionary Phone
After generating incredible buzz among designers and gadget geeks, Project Ara — Google’s groundbreaking modular smartphone — was suspended in 2016, concluding a three-year, bang-to-whimper arc.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Nonfiction, Quotes
What Was Virtual Reality?
The stakes of inventing and occupying fictional worlds have always been high — which explains why we were so fascinated with virtual reality already in the 1990s, when the technology was still in its pre-infancy.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Was Virtual Reality?
The stakes of inventing and occupying fictional worlds have always been high — which explains why we were so fascinated with virtual reality already in the 1990s, when the technology was still in its pre-infancy.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Your Phone Was Made By Slaves: A Primer on the Secret Economy
On the new triangle trade, and the surprising connection between modern slavery and ecological disaster.
Posted inUncategorized
Using Technology to Fight the Power
In a new story for Wired, Bijan Stephen looks at how the Black Lives Matter movement uses social media to organize and fight for change. As Stephen writes, “any large social movement is shaped by the technology available to it,” tailoring their goals and tactics to the media of their time. For the nascent Black Lives Matter […]
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Relearning How to Talk in the Age of Smartphone Addiction
Sherry Turkle studies how we relate to our devices, and thinks it’s high time we start talking to each other again.