Memes help keep Internet interesting
There is no reason to read today's Internet, honestly, when you have access to the Internet of ≈10 years ago. It's so funny and naive and wonderful I just never wanna go. Today, in the course of researching a story for next Monday, I came across the following headlines from like, 2008:
"World wide waste of time"
"Memes help keep Internet interesting"
"The mad, mad mogies of lolcat.com (yes, that's Laugh Out Loud cats)" -- because that was unclear or something?!
... ah, to live in a world where the appeal of memes had to be explained. Where "lol" had to be spelled out! Now those were the halcyon days ...
1. Yeah duh, algorithms can discriminate. Because they're programmed and used by people, these systems copy even our unsavory traits. Programmers could fix these things, if they tried: but there's so much pressure to push stuff out, they just let them slide.
2. All the worst parts of Reddit have left for Voat. Fat People Hate, conspiracy, KotakuInAction -- good riddance, I say, Voat can have them. (The Voaters themselves, of course, see things differently: They say their Reddit clone is a more human site that privileges free speech.)
3. If you give a tree an email, people will email the tree. When people email the tree, you'll have to email them back. When you email them back, you personify an object. And that changes the whole human-space relationship.
tfw you have an itch you just can't reach >:(
Pocketable: Quitbit. Shoenanigans. Personally, I like Minions. How AI screens out your Gmail spam. How to tweet, according to Cher. (PSA: She's the best thing on Twitter, if you weren't already aware.) Should you quit Facebook? Should hoax news be illegal? Is Google Deep Dream just "future kitsch"? Forget the comforting lies you've heard: You should totally fear the glitch.
Enjoy the weekend! See ya Monday,
@caitlindewey
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