Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s been a good few months for machine-learning software—and a confusing one for the humans trying to live their best lives around it. Last fall, digital art generators like Midjourney and DALL-E drew the alarm of illustrators, photographers, and other digital artists: not just because the algorithms were trained on data not expressly sanctioned by […]
social media
Posted inSocial Media
The EU is cracking down on big-tech privacy theft. Why not the US?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Although most of us never read the endless expanses of fine print in social-media-user “terms of service” agreements, the European Union’s (EU) “big-tech” regulators do. These agreements and the corporate abuses they accommodate can have far-reaching negative effects on societies—such as social unrest of the kind that ended up with a lethal, riotous assault on […]
Posted inDeep Dive
2022: The year in global review, Part I
Reading Time: 8 minutes All end-of-year lists are suspect. One must embrace futility when trying to summarize what happened on a planet of eight billion for one spin around the sun. So why do we do write them? At best, to break up our routines of knee-jerk outrage at the latest inane news item, and to think more systematically […]
Posted inSocial Media
It’s a great time to quit Twitter
Reading Time: 3 minutes Elon Musk’s capricious decision-making has ruined whatever potential Twitter had. There are other social media sites that aren’t hostage to his whims.
Posted inThe Secular
The few, the loud: How ‘very online atheists’ differ from other atheists
Reading Time: 18 minutes Most atheists hold far less polarized views than do the most visible atheists online. But online atheists fuel the negative stereotype of atheists overall.
Posted inGaming
Using games to defuse frustration in the Dark Ages of Twitter
Reading Time: 9 minutes Sure, it’s gallows humor. But maybe sometimes we need a good laugh when things are on fire all around us.
Posted inTechnology
Anonymity, privacy, transparency, integrity: Do we even know the future we want?
Reading Time: 8 minutes In the late 2000s, research blossomed around our use of online avatars. Did our videogame icons and social media profiles represent our actual selves, our ideal selves, or something else entirely? And did they have a reciprocal impact, a “Proteus effect” that transformed self-perception? Did we change in the real world based how our online […]
Posted inEconomics
FTX to file for bankruptcy, CEO of crypto giant steps down
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s been a wild year for tech giants: between Mark Zuckerberg’s faltering Metaverse, Elon Musk’s ruinous takeover of Twitter, and significant crashes on cryptocurrency exchanges, a lot of precarious digital systems are hitting key tipping points. The latest news out of the crypto world is no different: FTX, an industry giant once valued at $32 […]
Posted inSatire
Elon Musk invades Russia in the winter
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow, Russia – Elon Musk first bought Twitter, a social media platform that was bleeding money, at a premium. His next move was predictable: He invaded Russia in the winter. As he looks out at the burnt-out shell of Russia’s capital city he wonders Who can I blame for this? Because I know it isn’t […]
Posted inSocial Media
What next? Twitter’s complicated role in the literary world
Reading Time: 11 minutes Not long after Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, another exodus of site users began—and with it, discussion about the people who aren’t ready, or able, to leave. Transitioning to a new platform isn’t easy for everyone: for many disabled people, for instance, leaving Twitter means learning all the ins and outs of yet another system […]