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 Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Elle, Slate, The Cut and Medium’s OneZero.
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.
The regular WEEKEND EDITION riffs on trends and tendencies in internet culture and curates links from the week that was. Readers often tell me that they consider this email their best remaining source for interesting, unexpected and thought-provoking articles.
I also send more occasional ONE-OFF EDITIONS on topics ranging from the baffling rise of third-party marketplaces to the cultural obsession with water. You can preview some popular past editions below or in the archives if you’re a paid subscriber.
Paid supporters make this entire project possible. Links would not exist without them. So, in addition to my sincere and almost frightfully bottomless gratitude, paid subscribers receive:
Free access to linked articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, via those publications’ gift article programs
A Links laptop sticker and handwritten note by snail mail
Additional reading and viewing recommendations
Early access to Links experiments and features
Full access to archived editions dating back to 2014 (!)
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 (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)
“Ms. Dewey reads the Internet so you don’t have to. Smarty pants doesn’t really begin to explain the intelligence and wit that pepper this daily dose.” — David Carr (New York Times, 2014; Links is alas daily no longer!)
“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.
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 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.
