A wooded area. A roaring fire. A bit of gently falling snow. This is my happy place. Except, it’s not out my window; it’s on TikTok. For months I have “taught” TikTok to serve me this content: people, usually dudes, building shelters by hand in the wilderness. Most of them are ultra-sped-up timelapses that start […]
Earlier this week, feeling somewhat inundated with memes and social media posts about Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, I emailed Simone Driessen. She’s a professor of media and popular culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam and often has smart insights on the ways online commentary and real-world issues intersect. Mostly, […]
“For those of you who want Election Night to feel even more unhinged, I highly recommend elections.omg.lol.” That’s WIRED senior editor Andrew Couts talking about a single-serving site with a three-by-three grid of nine YouTube embeds, each broadcasting a 24-hour news channel’s live coverage. Election.omg.lol’s nine portals into the future of America provided a constant […]
Many lies get told on TikTok; also, many truths. One such truth came last weekend when a user with the handle @madallthatime explained that all the people looking for distinct Halloween costume ideas on social media were just being served the same videos by the algorithm—thus negating their uniqueness. Instead, this internet sage explainedthey should […]
