Gotta shun that Instagram life

The powers-that-be have finally -- finally! -- invented a sport that even myopic Internet-dwellers like you and I can enjoy. It's called COMPETITIVE WEB SURFING, and it is a real(ish) thing for which there are real(ish) prizes. There's no physical exertion, naturally, and I'm not 100% convinced there's much actual skill involved, either. But hey, people once said that of golf! I'll see you in Rio in 2016...

1. The many, many problems with that new SketchFactor app. At its face, the app -- which crowdsources reports of "sketchy" situations -- looks like a savvy way to stay informed of your surroundings. But in practice, SketchFactor may stereotype neighborhoods, reinforce inequalities ... and mold our personal choices around data we don't understand.

2. Silicon Valley runs on fake ADHD. The tech industry's alcohol and drug abuse problems are legend. But it has another problem too: countless programmers are using Adderall to enhance their performance, which is symptomatic of far bigger problems.

3. You gotta shun that Instagram life. "If we’re living a real life, we’ve gained the understanding that getting more doesn’t always lead to feeling happier. In an Instagram life, we’re instead focused on making it look like we have a better life than everyone else."

Definitive proof that children need less screen time.

Pocketable: Wikipedia was supposed to be the first universal news source, but it struggles with its own filter bubble. (3237 words/13 minutes)

Postscripts: #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. #Fatkini. Genie tweets. The Amazon Kindle, in one GIF, and the Smithsonian Library, in many. What people think about the open Internet. What writers do in the Internet outrage industry. Meet the beer bottle dictator, the new Mrs. Manson and the Instagrammers of the Bay Area Femme Cartel. Is email dying? Is uptalk immortal? Are your groceries paying for things you hate? Speaaaking of groceries, these are maybe the best things I've seen today.

Until tomorrow,
@caitlindewey

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