OFF my lawn

Per a vaguely disconcerting survey out of SXSW this week, a full 59 percent of U.S. adults have commented on a news story. I say "disconcerting" not because I want to deprive people of their two cents -- God FORBID -- but because their two cents is so consistently and inexcusably horrid. (Like, if you're amazed by Trump's America, you've not been reading comments.) Anyway, I think Simone Geirtz has articulately summed up the level of discourse with her Internet-commenting robot: It just bangs its head into a keyboard and rolls it around a lot.

1. On the origins of "garbage person," an A+ Internet insult. It applies equally to commenters, bad metro-riders and people who post chain statuses as adults. Apparently, garbage person dates back to Charles Manson's trial, when he referred to himself that way. That's probably an understatement, Charles -- but okay!

2. How the Internet ate the art world. In literature, as in other creative fields, the Web's making over discourse to look more like it. The results are often shallow, over-numerous ... and refreshingly democratic.

3. Don't forget that humans made the program that beat a human at Go. A fascinating discussion between experts of the strategy game, computer science and the fraught intersection of both.

literally the first YouTube video I've seen in my life with NO nasty comments

(link)

Postscripts: Lisa Frank tarot. The Mobile leprechaun. Ugh those millennials, GET OFF my lawn. The art of making something go viral and its pre-Internet history. The YouTube video that explains, in part, Trump's bizarre popularity. What it's like to blow up on Instagram; how reverse image-search works. Finally: a way to escape the filter bubble and to drown in its comforting murk.

See ya tomorrow!
@caitlindewey

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