3 Questions to Ask About Online Fandom (and Teen Fans)
The internet has played a large role in fostering intense fan communities. But are these high-octane, super-specific interests healthy? Or...interesting?
How Rotten Tomatoes Changed the Film Industry
In 2008, a panel of film critics gathered to talk about the future of film reviewing as a profession in the age of the internet.
What Congress Should Know About the Internet
Facebook's privacy and ad preferences settings are a privacy placebo: they trick us into feeling a little better, but they don't treat the underlying disease.
To Save Congress, Restore Local News
Since Donald Trump was elected, national news stories dominate our attention and our social media feeds—at the expense of local news.
What Do Personality Quizzes Really Tell You?
Do personality quizzes help solidify one's sense of self? Or is there something limiting in having one's identity summed up so neatly?
What Parkland Tells us About Teens and Social Media
While America’s parents have been wringing their hands over online safety, kids have steadily taken to social media, smartphones, and other digitally-enabled technologies to seek and promote their physical safety.
How Facebook Revived the Epistolary Friendship
Would today's online, social media-based friendships look familiar to the letter-writing friends of earlier centuries, when epistolary friendships were also common?
What to Do When Social Media Inspires Envy
In the case of envy, social media works in three closely related ways: by increasing proximity, by eliminating encapsulation and by rejecting concealment.
The Danger of Public Shaming in the Internet Age
The ritual of public shaming is nothing new. But today's brand of mass humiliation is more public, more widespread, more scarring, and potentially more dangerous.
How to Build the Netflix of Love
There's no shortage of online dating sites and apps. But there’s one common problem with these services: they’re all looking at the wrong data. Dating apps should take a hint from Netflix's algorithm.