Links #696: viral essays and low-stakes online drama
Brought to you by Dayquil, coffee and my giant reading pillow
Friends: I regret that I have no clever or timely intro for you this week. I have come down with a vengeful head cold, and am now basically a recumbent golem animated by Dayquil and coffee. Were my brain functioning, I would probably want to talk about the latest viral Cut essay, which I loved. LOVED. And by "loved,” I mean "thought it was comically dreadful, in terms of both craft and content, but enjoyed the delicious experience of reading both it and the ensuing online response.”
I don't know who's commissioning essays at The Cut these days, but I think she's an absolute genius. I can't immediately think of any other online content, unrelated to breaking news, that still attains this level of wall-to-wall online visibility or attracts this breadth of audience. It's a further sign that personal essays are BACK — hurray! — and also a good peg for a new feature I'm trying out Wednesday.
In the November reader survey, many of you indicated interest in curated article collections that go beyond the past week's reads. So! I'm going to start putting together once-a-month reading guides, organized around central themes.
I plan to collaborate with other curators and subject-matter experts on most of these — I already have one collaboration in the works and I am *psyched* — but for the inaugural edition, I thought we'd do something more straightforward and Linksy: internet-(in)famous personal essays. You know the type.
If you have nominations, I would LOVE to hear from you. I’ll inevitably miss some good ones! Please also reach out if you write a newsletter and have an idea for a reading guide we could collaborate on.
If you read anything this weekend
"Scientists Like Me Knew There Was Something Amiss With Andrew Huberman's Wildly Popular Podcast,” by Andrea Love for Slate. I very much enjoyed New York's searing profile of Andrew Huberman, a celebrity researcher and podcast host who apparently built both his personal and professional lives on fast-crumbling bedrocks of deception. It left me with some nagging questions, though — like, does he actually even perform research anymore? (The profile mentions this only briefly.) Or: How authoritative/science-based is his podcast, really? This Slate takedown doesn't answer the first question, but it's pretty resounding on the second: Andrew Huberman is a one-man font of health and wellness misinformation … with a loyal audience that numbers in the millions.
"The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife,” by Sophie Elmhirst for The New Yorker. Do I even need to describe this one? You guys LOVE trad wife discourse. But let me just say that this piece, which loosely profiles the regretful British matriarch of the modern trad wife movement, raises lots of fascinating downstream questions. Among them, said matriarch kicked this whole monster off because she felt undervalued as a stay-at-home mom. (That seems … pretty fair?) Also: The most offensive parts of Instagram tradwifery are, in some cases, the most disingenuous (all of these women have very successful, independent content-creating careers). Personally, I see why this content is appealing: It's a fantasy of blissful, eternal adolescence, full of cozy/photogenic hobbies and free from any real responsibilities.1 It's like being an heiress, but normals can opt-in. (Alas, the price of admission is your autonomy!)
Three reads on global surveillance. Yes, okay, not as fun as trad wives — but surely just as pressing. Governments in the U.S. and around the world have deployed facial recognition technology and related AI tools to monitor protesters, religious minorities and other marginalized communities. For Rest of World, Darren Loucaides investigates the chilling effect on protest movements in Russia, Iran and India. In The New York Times, Sheera Frenkel discovers that Israel is deploying an "expansive” facial recognition program in Gaza. Finally, a bit closer to home, Todd Feathers reports in The Guardian that San Jose — a technological bellwether for cities across the U.S. — is developing an AI tool to detect homeless encampments. None of this feels positive!
"The End of Foreign-Language Education,” by Louise Matsakis for The Atlantic. The rapid improvement of AI translation and dubbing tools seem, to me, both an extraordinary boon and a tragic loss: On one hand, I can understand people and access content from all over the world, which is so incredibly cool and life-expanding. On the other hand, important subtleties do get lost when an algorithm does the translating. Here, Matsakis identifies another casualty I hadn't thought about: Accurate automatic translators lessen the need to learn foreign languages. And that (I can confirm, as a lapsed Spanish major) limits the way that people understand both their world and other cultures.
"Tweaking on Main,” by Danielle Carr for Broadcast. The modern attention crisis stems, we're told, from the enticements and incentives of the modern web. But Carr has an alternative theory: Everyone who shaped early platforms was on Adderall … so it's Adderall that made those platforms addictive. This piece is part of a larger package of stories that examine the drug's cultural impact. It left me thinking there may be no better symbol for our manic, distracted, over-stimulated moment. (Thanks to R.D. for flagging this in last week’s comments.)
"How Birdwatching's Biggest Record Threw Its Online Community Into Chaos,” by Kari Paul for The Guardian. I leave you with this charming, low-stakes internet drama, in which everything works out in the end. Kinda reminds me of the PBS series All Creatures Great and Small, for some inexplicable (vibe-based?) reason.
In case you missed it
The most-clicked link from last Saturday's round-up was this guide to being less cringe on LinkedIn. (I'm relieved to learn this isn't just my personal problem.) Wednesday's edition — because these send on Wednesdays now, I guess — took on the puzzling, ubiquitous and increasingly absurd world of performative hydration.
The post references a wonderful project by the artist Maya Man; Man, I later learned, has just released a new algorithmic art project on the subject of perfume. In the comments, Nissa also reminded me of fancy ice, a *key* hydration fad I forgot to include. (I did catch this cold Wednesday, so I have that excuse.)
The Atlantic also published a piece yesterday on the rise of "functional beverages,” many of them flavored or enhanced waters. Yasmin Tayag posits that these brands are selling *feelings* more than drinks — again, peak wellness culture!
Finally, an update to the thoroughly unraveled Kate Middleton drama: In a conspiracy of conspiracies (you might call it … conspiracy inception), there's some evidence that the wilder rumors were fueled by Russian agents.
Postscripts
The favored products of Amazon seller farms. The alleged elitism of Connections. Meet Reddit's (unheralded) top user and OpenAI's artist in residence. How AI could brew better beer. How Gmail forever changed life online. Why Trump's Truth Social is worth $8 billion and how online gambling fuels sports' decline. Which AI Chatbot matches your politics? Did Grindr, now 15, kill off the gay bar? And is there some kind of punching spree going down in New York — or does TikTok just make crime more visible?
"Simpler, angrier, and more repetitive” — sounds like shorthand for the culture writ large! Your reservation app knows a whole lot about you. Your new Meta settings hurt democracy by default. Consider the Container Store, "technofeudalism” and a blues musician's take on AI songs. AI search comes for everyone; so too do cell phones. An excellent, ELI5-level explainer on the many, many problems in AI training data. Bridge misinformation. Online media bubbles. The origin of "Pussy in Bio” spam. Finally: "The incentives of social media have collided with the complexity of endometriosis to create an environment rife with false promises.”
Until next week! Warmest virtual regards,
Caitlin
I think this is also the regressive fantasy that 10-year-age-gap girl was trying to sell — but *she* made the mistake of saying quiet parts out loud, while also abusing her online thesaurus.
Feel better, and amazing recs, as usual.
I am sending tots and pears and woo on your health! Get well soon!