Will we ever learn?

They say good things come in threes, and karmic comeuppances seem to follow the same law! First Ashley Madison's other hack, then Sam & Nia's last hurrah -- now Buzzfeed's apparent attempt to repeat its own, newly atoned airplane-hoax drama. Will we ever learn? It seems unlikely! Until then, let's read the links...

1. When women harass other women online. We tend to hear a lot about male-on-lady violence -- your Gamergates, your "red pills," your radical MRAs. We hear much less about a brand of lady-on-lady stalking that's risen to the fore in some circles recently.

2. Has Amazon created a cultural monopoly, or just the opposite? In a recent filing, a group of authors claimed that Amazon's business schemes made the world less diverse and "intellectually active." Which is v. intriguing, but also suspect: Without Amazon, where would sales of this amazing discourse happen?

3. In praise of a return to the private Internet. Facebook et al have created a world where everything we post online is radically public. Thx, Facebook, but some of us are ready to scale that whole thing back.

Bear-y chill

Pocketable: Looking back, with some regret, on Diane in 7A -- the Twitter hoax that swallowed and spat up the viral news industry. (3346 words/13 minutes)

Postscripts: Instagramming North Korea. Tweeting all the #trends. Should bae "like" everything you post? (OBVIOUSLY. *Ahem.*) How to learn a new language and why teenagers are the worst. P. sure that "hacker hostels" are conceptually cursed. The Internet dealers of Cuba; the colors of app icons. Here's the latest iteration of Gamergate and its many hangers-on. Finally: we're all curators! Doesn't that sound cool? (Not if you recall that "curation" = "vainly attempting to assert your will over an unfeeling universe.")

Until tomorrow,
@caitlindewey

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