Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry chides the media for buying that paper predicting the death of Facebook. Why “any journalist with, not a science degree, but with a lick of common sense, could have figured out that the study wasn’t reliable”: The study uses an epidemiology model. Many stories pointed this out, so they read this part! This tells you … Continue reading Is Facebook Dying? Ctd
Kottke argues that the once-relevant medium has evolved into something new and disparate: Instead of blogging, people are posting to Tumblr, tweeting, pinning things to their board, posting to Reddit, Snapchatting, updating Facebook statuses, Instagramming, and publishing on Medium. In 1997, wired teens created online diaries, and in 2004 the blog was king. Today, teens … Continue reading “R.I.P. The Blog, 1997-2013”
Christopher Orr considers Her the best film of the year: Her is a remarkably ingenious film but, more important, it is a film that transcends its own ingenuity to achieve something akin to wisdom. By turns sad, funny, optimistic, and flat-out weird, it is a work of sincere and forceful humanism. Taken in conjunction with [Spike] Jonze’s prior … Continue reading A.I. Intimacy, Ctd
Eric Gibson thinks overzealous smartphone users are ruining the museum experience: Rather than contemplating the works on view, visitors now pose next to them for their portrait. In pre-digital photography the subject was the work of art. Now it is the visitor; the artwork is secondary. Where previously the message of such images was “I have seen,” … Continue reading Museums In The Age Of Selfies
Silvia Killingsworth responds to Oxford Dictionaries choosing “selfie” as “Word of the Year”: Strictly speaking, the modern-day selfie is a digital affair, but it’s a novel iteration of an old form: the self-portrait (a friend on Twitter joked, “was Lascaux the first selfie?”). As Kate Losse points out in her excellent primer, a notable point of … Continue reading Selfie Defense
Standard economic measures don’t account for digital gems: You may think that Wikipedia, Twitter, Snapchat, Google Maps, and so on are valuable. But, as far as G.D.P. is concerned, they barely exist. The M.I.T. economist Erik Brynjolfsson points out that, according to government statistics, the “information sector” of the economy—which includes publishing, software, data services, and telecom—has … Continue reading The Internet Is Undervalued
Yglesias is pleased by Snapchat’s refusal to sell to Facebook for $3 billion: The company’s founders and investors may or may not be making a terrible mistake. But from the sidelines, I think one should almost always root against the acquisition exit. It’s boring. It’s lame. The bet when you turn down $3 billion is that there’s … Continue reading Selling Out Can Be Smart
How credible is it that Obama was unaware that the NSA was tapping the phones of 35 world leaders? I don’t know. But the evidence is mounting that it is not credible. Ed Morrissey, for one, doesn’t buy it: [W]ho exactly would be the customer of this data, once collected? Here’s a hint: It’s not going to be … Continue reading Spy vs Spy, Ctd
John McDermott ponders Jonathan Franzen’s anti-Internet leanings and the role of technology in modern life: Life can indeed be sad and lonely, but technology can bridge that gap when used “correctly.” Now you can see photos of your niece who lives on the other side of the country; you can feel as if you’re not … Continue reading Internet Connections
by Matt Sitman Pivoting off various news stories about Instagram, Ali Eteraz describes the rise of a world that leaves out the written word: The virtual world that took off in the mid 90’s started as a place for words. Every person made a screen-name and then used text to communicate their ideas and feelings. … Continue reading The Transition From Text
