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,” he writes, “to the fetish of progress: the belief that history has a direction and a purpose, the faith that humankind is […]
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 […]
The Human Is Very Important Right Now
At the soup kitchen where I accidentally volunteered for a couple of years, the following exchange happened more than once. Observing the guests at plastic fold-up tables, a volunteer would whisper what we’d all at some point wondered. “How do they afford it? Who pays for these phones?” Ostensibly low-income, possibly homeless, the guests were […]
Why Microsoft’s Super Bowl Ad Won’t Leave Me Alone
This one comes to us from Ed Uszynski. It will be pretty easy to forget Super Bowl LIII, its halftime show, and its commercials, as none of the three produced much inescapably memorable drama. But the Microsoft ad touting its XBox Adaptive Controller is proving surprisingly harder to shake simply because I moved from initially hating it […]
New Parties for the Age of Social Media
Who actually flies to Vegas for a bachelor party? I’m not being mean or judgmental here. I really want to know. Who has that kind of money to spend on a friend? I mean, if you’re living in LA and Vegas is only 4 car hours away, make like The Hangover and have a good (and […]
The Straight Road Out of a Buried World
November 11 came and went as unexceptionally as any Sunday ever does, a day living under the permanent shadow of Monday, almost exclusively spent hoping against hope to recuperate before the work week resumes. Most Sundays, however, don’t mark one hundred years since the armistice that halted the First World War and gave the day […]
To Dissolve the Line Between Man and Machine: Reflections on Cyberpunk and Suffering in the Meatspace
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” (Neuromancer, pg. 3) If I self-reflect on how geeky my hobbies are, I’m nothing if not consistent. For the past year or so, some friends and I have been meeting in a basement after work and playing a fantastic Dungeons […]
The Mockingapp Has Landed!
The day we’ve all been waiting for has arrived: The Mockingapp is now available–for FREE–in the iTunes store! It was a mammoth undertaking but we think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait. The app brings together several strands of our work and puts them at your fingertips. Features include:
The Mockingbird Blog, optimized for mobile reading, searchable and sortable by category, fully redesigned by magazine designer Tom Martin.- The entire 365-day Mockingbird Devotional, easy to share with customizable reminders.
- Every episode of Mockingbird’s various podcasts (The Mockingcast, The Mockingpulpit, PZ’s Podcast, Talkingbird, Same Old Song), available to stream as well as download for offline listening.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you dig, please be sure to give us a review and tell your friends! We’re really proud of this thing. Major, major thanks goes to Alex R and Jonathan W for making us look far more legit than we actually are.
Get the App here, or by searching the App Store for “The Mockingapp.”
Note: as of right now, the Mockingapp is only available for iOSx devices, a decision made based solely on where the vast majority of our web traffic comes from. BUT we value our android readers, big-time, and hope to develop a version that works for them soon–pray that software would emerge that could translate apps across platforms!
A Better Promise Than a Better You
The fall season has finally come and you know what that means? Football. Pumpkin spice everything. Apple keynotes. A few weeks ago, Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook took the stage to show off the latest generation of wearables and handhelds from the minimalistic tech company. This year’s crop of devices featured slightly upgraded internals with […]
