This post comes to us from Blake Nail: Today’s video games are far more than what they used to be. Nowadays video games aren’t just a quick match of paddling a ball back and forth on a screen. Now we have grand narratives and entire worlds being built and developed within the product. While there […]
A Pandemic of Shame: Seeking Refuge From Online Anger
With studies showing a dramatic increase in social-media use during the pandemic, people have taken to the virtual streets, but it’s not exactly what you’d call a block party. Such is the focus of D. T. Max’s recent article in the New Yorker, “The Public-Shaming Pandemic,” about how people who have accidentally spread the coronavirus […]
Social Media and Choosing Your Own Narrative
This post from Stephanie Phillips was originally published on Mbird in October of 2014. Safe to say that it’s still incredibly relevant. I engaged in a Facebook fight recently. This hasn’t happened in a while. I try to avoid commenting on the status updates and posts that particularly (and regularly) annoy me–not so much out […]
Pick up the Phone, It’s Your Long-Lost Friend Jeanette with an Urgent Message about Your Terrible Relationship with Social Media
Hi, it’s Jeanette, yes, from years ago. I know it’s been a while, but I just had to call. I’ve kept quiet for too long, so I’m going to come out and say it. Your relationship with Social Media sucks. First of all, my dear, he is a liar. He tells you that you have […]
God of Progress, Slow Us Down
The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. – Frank Herbert, Dune In his essay “After the Storm,” author Ben Ehrenreich investigates the concept of progress. It’s in the air, he argues, so elemental we don’t always know we’re breathing it. “We are in thrall,” […]
Very Superstitious: The Human Propensity for Faith in the Unseen
“We make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.” – William Shakespeare A couple of months ago, Julie Jargon wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal called “My Baby Monitor Is Haunted,” about a number of parents who have witnessed paranormal activity from the […]
Text Message for the Otherworld
When I was in school, Facebook was young. One evening, I saw a dead classmate’s profile, his picture featured on the sidebar, a recommended friend. I spent the next hours perusing the status updates he had posted when he did not realize his days were numbered. For anyone wondering, now Facebook has an answer for […]
Are Friends Electric? And Is Grace Digital?
This one’s especially for Andy, Anna, Blake, Caleb, Chris, Jeff, Kristin, Nathan, Reed, and Trevor. It seems like a hilariously ironic turn of Providence that I who have been so deeply suspicious of connectivity through electronic media and its pernicious (albeit often unintended) consequences should find the friends I am most in touch with, most […]
I Deleted My Social Media and Didn’t Tell Anyone (Except You)
I deleted all of my social media accounts a month ago and I didn’t tell anyone. Well, two qualifications. First, I deleted LinkedIn (honestly, I don’t remember ever signing up for LinkedIn) and Twitter, but I only deactivated Facebook and Instagram because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and I haven’t downloaded […]
