Internet
Scroll model: confessions of a clickbait writer
Working on a ‘trending’ news desk is the journalistic equivalent of being a battery-farmed hen. When I was still at…
A fiery examination of the damage wrought by internet culture
Historically, when a woman was giving birth, she was attended by the women she trusted most, including her child’s prospective…
How did the internet become so horrific?
Plus: the joy of hearing lawyers argue
The problem with being anti-woke
I’m going to do something that will likely annoy you, dear reader: I am going to make an argument about a…
Is Twitter about to step up its censorship?
Farewell then @jack. Jack Dorsey’s departure from Twitter on Monday came as no surprise given that the firm Elliott Management,…
The toxic side-effect of the Trump Twitter ban
Almost two weeks on from the storming of the US Capitol it’s becoming plainer that the most substantive changes to…
Trump vs Twitter: the battle begins
When Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter in the UK, described the company as the ‘free speech wing of the…
Are there ways in which virtual exhibitions are better than real ones?
Six months ago I published a book about travelling to look at works of art. One such journey involved a…
A great example of how Radio 4 is using new technologies to enhance audio
‘It’s too familiar, too obvious,’ says Cathy FitzGerald at the beginning of her new interactive series for Radio 4, Moving…
The Kafkaesque nightmare of cancelling my BT broadband
Oh, I suppose I might as well give it a whirl, I thought, as the recorded voice began its dirge:…
Technology wastes as much time as it saves
I have just spent a weekend planning a family trip to Chennai and Hyderabad. Since some of the flights are…
Explained: Why you’ll never understand memes
Boy and I have been driving the Fawn mad by singing the ‘Johny Johny Yes Papa’ song. It goes (roughly…
Word of the week: dot
With the sensation produced by hearing one’s name, I jumped when I saw mine on a poster advertising an Amazon…
The vlogging fantasy that bewitches our children
My friend’s ten-year-old daughter has a new hobby. Like many of her school pals, she hopes to become a video…
It’s not all Twitter mobs – the internet can be a force for good
Few readerships of any intelligent national magazine will be more alive to the perils and downsides of 21st–century cyber-life than…
The joy of YouTube is that the content created is content-free
None of us is above YouTube, and nothing is beneath it. We have of course all long since submitted to…
Compulsory subtitles? I read ‘em and weep
Subtitles are taking over the world. It’s increasingly rare these days for a video clip to be free of those…
The inventions (and Welsh rarebit mix) that will change your life
At last. And just what you’ve been waiting for. The official Wiki Man guide to the best gadgets and gizmos…
Letters
The great divider Sir: Niall Ferguson (‘Tech vs Trump’, 14 October) draws a parallel between the Reformation — powered by the…
A choice of first novels
Remember Douglas Coupland? Remember Tama Janowitz? Remember Lisa St Aubin de Terán? Banana Yoshimoto? Françoise Sagan? The voice of your…
The right kind of dumbing down
Thanks to meteoric advances in computational power, it is now possible to take abundant data from a wide range of…
The internet’s war on free speech
The web was meant to empower us all. Right now, it’s empowering censors
Online feedback frenzy is killing the art of complaint
Internet surveys have killed the art of complaint
What happened when my son went to school as Goldilocks
Whenever I hear a leftie complain about being abused on Twitter, I think: ‘You should try being me.’ A case…
What do all these evil maniacs have in common?
More bad publicity for the Islamic State’s ‘Kafir Tiny Tots and Babycare Service’. A burka-clad madwoman wandering through the streets…
