‘How to Handle a Crowd’ Goes to the Moderators
Anika Gupta's How to Handle a Crowd casts a long-overdue spotlight on the work that goes into making online communities enjoyable and rewarding.
technology
Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation (excerpt)
Whether you remember waiting for dial-up access, tiny screens, and green lines of text or not, you'll get a kick out of Alex Wiltshire's travel back in time to when computers came with wires. Enjoy this excerpt of Home Computers, courtesy of MIT press, with nostalgia photography by John Short.
From the Enterprise to the Discovery: The Decline and Fall of Utopian Technology and the Liberal Dream
Sci-fi TV such as Star Trek and Doctor Who have more in common with Harry Potter’s wand-waving than Gene Roddenberry’s techno-utopian dream.
‘Memento’ Is the Movie of the Attention Economy
We are afraid of time, and so like Leonard in Memento, we kill it, compulsively and indiscriminately.
Be Kind. Please Rewind: An Ode to the VCR
Like Netflix, the VCR diluted and transformed the film itself.
Does Social Media Mark the End of the End of Childhood?
Culture and media critic Kate Eichhorn's The End of Forgetting explores how relentlessly documenting young lives allows little room for the unfettered joys of imaginative freedom and perpetuates a seemingly endless state of childhood.
‘Black Mirror’ Season 5 Should Be Its Last
It makes perfect sense that 2019 — the last year of the decade — should also be the last year for one of the 2010s' best shows. To continue would be a disservice to viewers.
#PopMatters20: Tech Is Evil and TechKnow Kinda Told You So
How deluded we were about our devices being labor-saving, productivity-increasing cure-alls! And other realizations of how the rise of technology has affected our lives.
‘Bitwise’ and Our Fluid Interactions with Technology
David Auerbach offers a unique perspective on the fascinations of technology as well as how it can often blight our sensibilities when thinking about our fellow human beings.
Don’t Google It! How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Algorithms of Oppression addresses the growing concern about the consequences of commercial control over information and the harm it does to communities.
Designing Desire in ‘Made for Love’
Alissa Nutting takes readers on a wild ride through the murky waters of love and Florida.
Are You Paying Attention? ‘The Distracted Mind’
Multi-tasking on your smart phone consumes too many resources, including memory, and can cause the system to "choke". Imagine what it does to your brain.