X’s First Transparency Report Since Elon Musk’s Takeover Is Finally Here
In the first half of 2024, the report says, X received nearly 67 million reports of hateful conduct, and took action on more than 2,000 accounts.
Old Web Is Dying
The synthetic social network is coming
Between ChatGPT’s surprisingly human voice and Meta’s AI characters, our feeds may be about to change forever
After the Internet
There is no "online world." That was always a metaphor, and as it turns out, a bad one. But what can take its place?
Strava and Letterboxd Surge as Users Crave Social-Media Refuge
Strava launched in 2009 as a niche website for cyclists to log mileage. During the pandemic, it blossomed into a mobile app serving more than 120 million athletes as worldwide lockdowns drove people outdoors.
YouTube Stars Want Some Respect
“Hot Ones,” “Chicken Shop Date” and “Good Mythical Morning” draw big audiences but aren’t getting the kind of ad dollars and accolades TV shows do.
Cozytech
Towards a viable alt-tech philosophy made up of individually delusional, collectively rational parts
Google's Exclusive Reddit Access
DuckDuckGo, Bing, Mojeek, and other search engines are not returning full Reddit results any more.
The Pop Craveification of Breaking News
We're all learning about major events through increasingly bizarre digital formats.
News hustlers, who operate primarily on X, but also Threads, Instagram, and any app with a native reshare button, are the Pop Crave model of news on steroids
India leads the world internet shutdown count for sixth year - Access Now
For the sixth year in a row, India led the world in internet shutdowns, disrupting the internet at least 116 times.
The World’s Last Internet Cafes
For a quarter century, internet cafes connected the world. Now they’re vanishing into history.
China's undersea cable drive defies U.S. sanctions
'Diplomatic race' with Washington as Beijing pursues self-sufficient global network
The Age of Social Media Is Ending
It never should have begun.
When Online Content Disappears
A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible.
A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible, as of October 2023. In most cases, this is because an individual page was deleted or removed on an otherwise functional website.
Project Random
A random, obscure content generator for the web. Discover media with zero views from YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and more.
We can have a different web
Many yearn for the “good old days” of the web. We could have those good old days back — or something even better — and if anything, it would be easier now than it ever was.
Are We Watching The Internet Die?
Sometime this month, Reddit will go public at a valuation of $6.5bn. Select Redditors were offered the chance to buy stock at the initial listing price, which it hasn’t announced yet but is expected to be in the range of $31-34 per share. Regardless of the actual price,
Don't buy their lies. Generative AI might be steeped in the language of high fantasy, but it’s a tool, one that they will not admit is a terribly-flawed and unprofitable way to feed the growth-at-all-costs tech engine.
Here lies the internet, murdered by generative AI
Corruption everywhere, even in YouTube's kids content
AI-generated images
The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again
The internet seems ripe for change, and millions of people seem poised to connect in new ways, as they reconsider their relationship to technology.
The Cheap Web
The cheap web is a solarpunk philosophy of web design.
The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism
Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It’s past time we call it what it is.
How Tech Outstayed Its Welcome
Last week, Apple opened pre-orders for the Vision Pro, a $3500 “spatial computer” that is its first real “new” thing since the Apple Watch, and arguably its most notable release since the iPad or iPhone. Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the few truly reliable Apple analysts, estimates that the Vision Pro
The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit - Aftermath
The Internet used to be so simple to use that people collectively coined the term “let me Google that for you” to make fun of people who had the audacity of asking other people questions online. In the future I fear that people will have no other choice but to ask people for information from the Internet, because right now it’s all full of AI dogshit.
The Uncanny Valley
It has been a truly bizarre week. We’ve watched three banks die, and then a fourth bank almost died (Credit Suisse) before being scooped up by UBS for the rock-bottom price of $3.2bn. Credit Suisse’s fall from grace is especially remarkable given that it was
What Happened to My Search Engine?
Or why tech upgrades are now mostly downgrades
Life Really Is Better Without the Internet
What happened after my wife and I removed Wi-Fi from our home
Opinion | The Year Millennials Aged Out of the Internet
It is the zoomers’ web now.
Discovery is the original sin of the modern age
technology, living post scarcity, and how to find what you want
How Google perfected the web
The web is filled with content designed for Google, not humans.
Browsing the Eastern Side of the Personal Web
Neocities users tend to link to only Neocities users and no one else. Despite many of its users being against walled gardens, it ironically became one itself.
Japanese Personal Web, or as they call it: creative/doujin sites.
I still find it interesting that there are still that many people overseas updating their sites for years despite social media existing
Something that I've noticed in general is that the personal sites over there tend to be very creations/product focused. That is, their sole purpose is to show off things that they've made, rather than embody some sort of persona.
Webrings or cliques over here usually have an admission system: you apply to be part of the ring, and if your site satisfies all of the requirements, then you're allowed in. You add the widget to your site, and the site of the webring/directory will link to all sites that are a part of it.
Since their culture handles criticism and feedback differently compared to those from the West, it's not surprising then that they're finding it hard to adapt to the Cancel Culture that is (unfortunately) heavily normalized over here. This is likely why many of these people, even in such a secluded place as a personal website, take extra precautions to make sure that they don't get negative attention, despite the fact that their sites are already hard enough to find as it is.