The cyber is so big

Yesterday was my grandmother's 80th birthday, and tonight I'm driving up to Buffalo for her surprise party. In that vein, I thought I'd dedicate this week's newsletter intro to some of her pithier observations on technology.

Mama: Your mother brought her computer here the other day and tried to show me Facebook.
Me: Oh yeah, how did you like it?
Mama: I'm too old for that stuff.
Me: Did you look at pictures of the cousins?
Mama: Caitlin Elizabeth, I cannot BELIEVE all the pictures they have on there. I thought I had a lot in my cupboard, but that Facebook is something else.

**

Mama: Did you watch Jeapordy last night?
Me: No, I don't have cable.
Mama: Don't have cable! Well how do you watch your programs?
Me: Remember I told you I get the ones I want through the computer.
Mama: I don't understand, through the computer. Do you and Jason just sit around and both stare at that tiny screen?
Me: No, the computer connects to the TV.
Mama: The computer connects to the TV! How do they think of these things?

**

Mama: So are you still doing those things on the computer?
Me: What things? You mean my job?
Mama: Yeah, the writing on the computer. Your mother prints it out for me sometimes but I never understand what you're talking about.

tell 'em grandma

1. It's easy to believe in conspiracy theories -- until your life becomes one. So found Lenny Pozner, a Sandy Hook dad who's waged three years of war on behalf of his son. In Facebook groups and message boards, thousands of people believe the boy never died. But as much as Pozner has argued, explained and debunked, minds are very hard to change online.

2. Legacy.com is basically Facebook, except the profile-owners are dead: It still deals with spam, still screens harassment, still targets eerily accurate ads. In other words, if you thought death would free you from the scourge of the Internet ... just wait and see what Legacy's "Innovation Lab" comes up with next.

3. Inside the sexting scandal that destroyed a teen girl's life. After the photos spread around her Massachusetts school, she grew isolated and contemplated suicide. The scariest thing is how common this one girl's experience is. At her school alone, the boy who spread her texts had several other victims.

4. Facebook's News Feed -- the "most significant invention in the history of the social Web" -- celebrated a birthday of its own this week! Oh, to go back to a time when dudes with titles like "VP of Ads" didn't define our notions of privacy...

5. "As far as the Internet is concerned, my pregnancy proceeded normally and I ... became a mother last month." This essay on data and miscarriage and loss is beautiful, heart-breaking stuff.

>> You can download these links (and several others!) as a free ebook here.

outta the way, outta the way!

Postscripts: 7 of the least helpful how-tos on YouTube. 8 of the weirdest networks on the net. 3 of the creepiest Facebook settings that you may actually wanna check. How to Instagram your food and why you're over the new iPhone. (Could it be because Apple owns you? Lol/shruggie/I don't know.) The rise of the Internet, in GIFs. The history of the "Bye, Felicia" meme. It turns out it's hard to be an Old in youth-obsessed Silicon Valley. "The cyber is so big" says a man who seems obsessed with the size of things. Hot on the Internet these days: livestreams of absolutely n-o-t-h-i-n-g.

Facebook is giving you depression; WebMD is making you sick. I know precious little about Eve: Online, but adore its dramatics. How Facebook News Feed *really* works. How the bit was born. Internet tracking's gone way beyond cookies -- so consider yourself warned. Why you will never really love a robot. Why Harambe's the perfect meme. Finally, this week in AirBnb news: hunters, racists and make-believe.

Until next week!
@caitlindewey

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