Got that buzz
I know times are tough in the news business now always, but dear Bezos above, has it really come to this? Some poor, anonymous and self-evidently desperate soul is -- for no pay, and for reasons unknown -- running The Atlantic's Ello account. We may be witnessing the birth of the unpaid unintern: a new class of humans who will work for neither pay nor school credit, on totally obscure projects/social platforms, just because things really are that bad. (Unintern, it gets better.) Onward!
1. Social media is pushing the limits of friendship. Not in the sense that your friends' selfies drive you crazy, or you can't stand another Buzzfeed quiz. Online, we have way more friends/acquaintances than was anthropologically thought possible. Does that mean the science is wrong, or the social networks are?
2. Cool it, Generation TED. We've got Upworthy. We've got TED talks. We've got a gross overuse of words like "awesome" and "amazing." Everybody's always so amped about everything -- which may be for the worse.
3. Mom, Dad -- I'm dropping out to be a gamer. Mashable takes a closer look at a few people who play video games for a living -- an occupation that, frankly, never ceases to amaze me.
These guys make better art than the iPad tortoises.
Pocketable: Kathy Sierra -- one of the earliest, highest-profile victims of serious cyber-harassment -- wrote a "long and rambling and unedited" (and disturbing) essay on her experience. (5665 words/23 minutes)
Postscripts: Celebrithets. Rich kids. Google camels. "Biblically correct sex." The future of Watson and the history of Pong. How "The Brave Little Toaster" predicted the future. How you should support ladies online. Do I drink too much? Do you "got that buzz"? Is there a single woman on earth who wants these things? We all want to help Syria, but I'm not sure I have faith in this meme.
Bonus shout-out to the readers who corrected my use of the words "light years" and "proceeding" yesterday. TIL that a light-year ≈ 6 trillion miles and proceeding ≠ preceding, which is of course what I meant to say. You are who I do this for, ya damn sticklers.
Until tomorrow!
@caitlindewey
Do you like this newsletter? Please send it to a friend! If you don't like this newsletter, please send it to an enemy.