All the good things the Internet has given you
Science and lived experience tell us that January is prettyyyy much the No. 1 most shitty time of year. So when I left home for work this morning -- forgetting my coffee, naturally, AND tearing a run in my tights -- I was very taken aback by my boyfriend's request that the newsletter "be nicer" today.
"But it's January," I remind him. (Also: It's the Internet.)
"Yeah, but I think you're being too cynical," he says, like a mom cajoling a recalcitrant kid. "Think about all the good things the Internet has given you. Like that Sicilian beef recipe. Or those hedgehog GIFs!" (This last bit, at least, is true: I do really like hedgehog GIFs.)
SO, subscribers, today I offer you a bit of much-needed perspective: While it is very, very easy to get down on ~Internet culture~, particularly at this sad and snowy time of year, please remember that the Internet's a marvel of human genius and we're indescribably lucky to have it. </Being sincere.> This has been a public service announcement; now let's get out of here:
1. The computer that knows how you feel. Academics and private researchers are hard at work on technologies that can read your feelings in your face. Sooo ... what happens when your computer knows how you feel about everything from your friends to political debates?
2. "The blank screen will not save you." If you are anything like me, you've spent the past two weeks downloading fitness apps, getting down to Inbox Zero, and logging your resolutions on Coach.me. Alas, no app store purchase can really give us a fresh start. "My salvation is to be found in ... the analogue mess of the past."
3. Is your email address in your signature? For God's sake, TAKE IT OUT. (But I mean, for serious, what is that all about?)
Basically.
Pocketable: If Silicon Valley had emerged in a more racially integrated place, would the tech industry be different? (12,537/50 minutes)
Postscripts: ISIS babies. Sugar babies. Manic pixie babies. (L-o-l.) The great Twitter mystery of our era and the Twitter story from hell. Why Ben & Jerry's drops new flavors in winter. Why Netflix is (maybe!) dropping the BBC. Life is "unfair, hilarious, and possibly meaningless" -- but only possibly! The top 25 photos on Flickr. The top 40 celebs on Instagram. I wish this didn't ring so true, but ... "sorry to be Aaron Sorkin eating toothpaste straight from the tube."
Until tomorrow!
@caitlindewey
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