The internet as culture, business, and public argument
The flagship topic reads the internet as an aging public square. Platform shifts are not treated as product updates alone; they become evidence of changing power, degraded trust, and the uneasy bargain users make with the companies that host their speech.
A second thread watches people push back against constant connection. Stories about dumbphones, flip phones, etiquette, and online fatigue show a practical concern with how communication habits reshape attention, relationships, and everyday manners.
The topic also keeps returning to the civic cost of mediated life. Misinformation, partisan new media, fact-checking, free speech fights, and AI all sit inside the same question: who controls the story when public conversation moves through platforms built for speed and profit?
- Further reading
- Saying ‘Google It’ Makes You Sound Old. ‘Search It Up’ Instead
- AOL Ends Dial-up Internet Service After More Than 30 Years
- Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please
- A.I.: Marshall McLuhan Warned Us About Folks Like Peter Thiel. He Died in 1980.
- Did the Camera Ever Tell the Truth?
- A.I. News: Spike Jonze’s "Her" Predicted Life in 2025. We Can Still Learn From It Today.