Cool game bro

There's a hot new trend (read: ANNOYING THING) coming for your Facebook feed: It's called the "first profile photo challenge," and it sounds exactly like what it is. On the scale from incessant baby pictures to blissful social media silence, I think this actually falls toward the silent side of the scale: Not quite as bad as, say, Neknomination, but still pretty full o' fail. Links!

1. Facebook doesn't know if you're faking it. You've probably seen a lot about that study that said Facebook knows you better than your friends. That's true, but maybe only to an extent.

2. Can algorithms be racist? Yeah, actually. The secret algorithms that track your data and put you in boxes like "probably bipolar" and "gullible elderly" fall victim to the same biases as people ... even when they're basically doing their own thing.

3. On falling in love with a video game. Not love like -- "cool game bro, I played 36 hours straight." Love like -- "I have a ~real relationship~ with this character, and am not sure if that's okay."

Is it ... alive?

Pocketable: On vintage tech and "Back to the Future." (2194 words/9 minutes)

Postscripts: Work hard vs. play hard. 2chainz vs. Nancy Grace. How Amazon tricks you into thinking it has the cheapest price and why 2015 will mark the death of clickbait. The dark psychology of Internet commenting. A brief history of Hollywood's techno-fear. A dog that rides the bus by herself?! This is even better than the dog who gets beers.

Until tomorrow!
@caitlindewey

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