Hi, hello!
I’m Caitlin Dewey, a writer and essayist based in Buffalo, New York. I started Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends in 2014, shortly before I became the first digital culture critic at The Washington Post. Since then, I’ve written about technology, culture and assorted other topics for outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Elle, Cosmopolitan, The Counter, Stateline and OneZero. But much of my favorite and most rewarding work is for this newsletter.
Links comes recommended by publications including The New York Times, WNYC, Nylon, Tech Brew and Mediashift, among others, and material from the newsletter has been republished or adapted for outlets including Slate, The Cut and Poynter. Links mails to almost 18,000 subscribers in all 50 states and 127 countries around the world.
What is Links?
Links is a digital culture newsletter for people who miss the old internet: the one that wasn’t crowded with Elon Musk reply-guys, viral attention-hackers and shrimp Jesuses. It’s interested in big-picture questions about technology and how it shapes our lives and culture. But it’s also fun and serendipitous and sometimes deeply weird — all the things that social media really isn’t now.
Subscribers receive two weekly emails: an original essay, article or Q&A on Wednesday, and an obsessively curated Saturday round-up of the best new tech and culture writing from the week prior. I also write a very occasional, opt-in personal blog called IRL.
The internet, of course, is a vast and random place. Links tends to range pretty widely, too. My most popular edition to date is this reflection I wrote on out-of-office email after my third miscarriage — but I’ve also covered the Stanley craze, Google recipe ratings, “internet colors” and online trafficking myths.
Why subscribe?
All subscribers receive two regularly scheduled weekly newsletters:
The Saturday edition: a round-up of digital culture and technology articles, culled from the many, many hours I spend reading the internet each week. More than a decade of obsessive RSS feed management goes into creating these recommendation emails — I follow hundreds of news sites, blogs and newsletters to find you things to read.
The Wednesday edition: original essays, articles and analyses of internet culture and technology, often on topics chosen by readers. If you’re curious about the men grieving their AI girlfriends, the return of the viral personal newsletter or the sudden cultural obsession with water, you’ll fit right in here.
Paid subscribers make the Wednesday edition possible — I wouldn’t have the time or space for this work without them. So, in addition to my sincere and almost frightfully bottomless gratitude, paid subscribers also get:
Free access to linked articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic, via those publications’ gift article programs
Early access to Links experiments and features
All posts to IRL, my nascent personal blog
A free link on their birthday (mysterious!)
Don’t take my word for it
Here’s what some very kind people have said about Links:
“I would be lost on the internet without Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends.” — Brian Stelter (former CNN, The Morning Show)
“Reading Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends for the past nine years has been utterly formative to my personal understanding of internet culture (that is, pop culture!). Caitlin always delivers the best links you haven't seen yet—she's a pioneer of the form.” — Delia Cai (Deez Links)
“Every week, Caitlin Dewey somehow finds the most interesting links in an ocean of internet sludge. Her curatorial eye, paired with sharp original writing, makes ‘Links I Would GChat You’ an essential read.” — Andy Baio (waxy.org)
“Links actually blends the things many other publications and newsletters claim to but don't deliver on: wide-ranging coverage of interesting/emerging stories, a conversational tone, and an authentic personality/point-of-view. It's like a well-informed close friend is sending me things they know I will find interesting.” — Andy in Houston (subscribed since 2020)
“The perfect way to feel manageably online.” — Kate in Richmond (subscribed since 2020)
“Thanks to you my friends think I'm way cooler than I am.” — Paula in Calgary (subscribed since 2022)
Get in touch
I’ve met some of my best friends through this newsletter, which means I’m being pretty sincere when I tell you I love chatting with subscribers. To share links, rants, feedback, advertising inquiries or other questions, email me at linksiwouldgchatyou at gmail dot com or reach out on Threads or Instagram.
A quick word on the Links paywall policy
I do link directly to paywalled stories, but only if said paywall is metered or soft. That means you can always read any article in Links by (a) opening it in incognito mode (b) using 12ft, archive.today or any of a million other simple paywall-hopping tools/tricks/extensions or (c) kindly and generously subscribing to the outlet in question.
I don’t hop the paywalls for you, because that feels a bit ethically ambiguous at scale. But I also won’t link to sites with impenetrable paywalls, so take heart from that.
