We curate ourselves into something safe. We smooth out our rough edges. We keep things palatable, we stay detached, we’re less invested, we’re dedicated to avoiding embarrassment at all costs. That’s the mantra. Be cool. Be aloof. Don’t try too hard. Don’t try at all.
Pizza Party
For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” every creative work—
My current project: I've been dusting off the old hard drives with my ripped CD collection and loading them into an iPod. A 20-year-old piece of tech with its click wheel intact, no WiFi, and no algorithm feeding me recommendations I didn't ask for. The result:
Pizza Party
I don't run analytics tools on my blog or The Index. Why would I? I don’t write for numbers. I write for people. There are no ads, no sponsors, and no investors to placate with colorful graphs and charts. In my experience, most metrics measure the wrong
Big Tech designed their platforms to keep you trapped. YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok aren't neutral spaces. They're businesses built on capturing your attention and data. Their algorithms, notification systems, and content policies all serve one purpose: keeping you engaged on their terms. And their terms
25.9% of teenagers who spend four or more hours daily on screens experienced depression symptoms in the past two weeks. 27.1% reported anxiety symptoms. Higher durations of Internet use increases depression levels. Adolescents who spend more than three hours online daily are more likely to fall into the
There is something perverse about every voice of record, every journalist with a profile, every writer with an audience abandoning ship for Substack. It's been a growing trend for the past few years, and it's getting worse. Substack has done an excellent job convincing intelligent people
Scroll through Instagram for a few minutes, and you’ll be swamped by a parade of sponsored posts promising extraordinary wealth through minimal effort: “PDF farming” generating €25,000 monthly, rebranded ebooks yielding “$4230 in a month,” or selling “thousands of books without writing them.” These aren’t fringe scams
Pizza Party
The world can no longer trust American tech. If that sounds dramatic, take a step back and consider the facts. The United States is a nation in the thrall of authoritarianism, owned and operated almost completely by a far-right doomsday cult intent on betraying every alliance, every contract, every promise