This feels like a Rorschach test
This week: YikYak, OnlyFans, #Rushtok, board games, beauty filters and kids named Alexa
Hi friends. Today is August 20, 2021.
It’s been six years and fourscore divorces since the larger and more damning of the Ashley Madison data dumps. Yik Yak is back; OnlyFans is floundering; and the deserved Bama #Rushtok backlash has only just begun. Meanwhile, spam is trending on Facebook, today and everyday — though that’s not really news where I come from…?
If you read anything this weekend
“How Did Noah Beck Become the Biggest TikTok Guy on Earth?,” by Willa Bennett in GQ. The phrase “TikTok guy” is doing a lot of work in this headline — Noah Beck is not the most-followed man on TikTok, by a pretty long shot — but I am always here for a marquee celebrity profile of an online influencer. (See also: Charli D’Amelio in The Atlantic, Clubhouse FTB in Harper’s.)
“He Predicted the Dark Side of the Internet 30 Years Ago. Why Did No One Listen?,” by Reed Albergotti in The Washington Post. This saga of a celebrated computer scientist who one day just disappeared — apparently of his own accord! — feels like a Netflix or Amazon special waiting to happen, if only Amazon et al. didn’t embody the trends that Philip Agre predicted/abhorred.
“How Digital Beauty Filters Perpetuate Colorism,” by Tate Ryan-Mosley in MIT Technology Review. The latest in a series on how digital technologies are “narrowing” beauty standards, with devastating consequences for young women and people of color.
“How a Board Game About Birds Became a Surprise Blockbuster,” by Dan Kois in Slate. You do not have to know or like “Wingspan,” the very trendy birding board game, to appreciate this piece — which also covers the culture/industry/ascendance of board games and the many (promising!) ways they’re changing.
“Amazon Killed the Name Alexa,” by Joe Pinsker in The Atlantic. “Basically, Amazon’s impact on the name Alexa resembles that of a natural disaster.”
The classifieds
This edition of Links is powered by IHOP and literally no one else … because for the first time in five months, we have no classifieds! What the heck!!
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Postscripts
Weird Spotify playlists. A Netflix for fictional shows within shows. The largest media company you’ve never heard of and the people who live-tweet police scanners. Why Twitter banned Trump, but not the Taliban. (Hint: They’re basically better at it.) The sounds of subways around the world and the “collective unconsciousness of the internet.”
Is the “new Gawker” really … Gawker? (This feels like a Rorschach test.) Should doxxing be illegal? (An easier question.) The “little-known human stories” behind 🕴️ and 🦚️. Inside the Facebook metaverse, such as it exists. Last but not least, a deeply reported and sympathetic look at “the college dorm shopping industrial complex.”
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin