What kind of nightmares are we all in for?
Here's a horror story perfect for the Internet era: It begins when a blogger receives a video of a hooded man, making arcane gestures to the camera. Analysis reveals that the video's coded with death threats, torture porn and other gore. So who made it, what the hell does it mean, and what kind of nightmares are we all in for?
1. How we ended up with this particular Internet. (You know, the one that's full of trolls, flame wars, and assorted forms of harassment.) It might have less to do with inert human nature, and more with the philosophical framework we've inherited.
2. The YouTube routine video is a complete and utter LIE. No one springs out of bed to do yoga, make smoothies and put on a full face of make-up by five. But Roisin Kiberd argues, persuasively (!), that the genre's about more than social media posturing: It is, she writes, "a series of Stepford-esque domestic tropes, a retrograde vision of online femininity."
3. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me for not Google stalking you.
Shiver me litters!!! (Link)
(Is this the worst pun I've ever made? Debatable! But I have no shame.)
Pocketable: An inside history of Match.com as it goes public. (2986 words/12 minutes)
Postscripts: Misogyny Monday. Bernie babies. Crowdsourced compositions. How computers, of all things, are taught to recognize depression. "My greatest and most famous work will always be the kebab cat tweet."
Lol YOU could pay ME to watch YouTube, maybe. Today in drones: female operators and racing them pro. Today in olds: Will tech ever not be ageist? (Probably not, sorry, no.)
See ya tomorrow!
@caitlindewey
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