This piece, like “Employee of the Month” in 2023, is one that reassures me. When I keep that View Stats button unclicked, I still feel that magic of writing and sharing something that wasn’t there before.
Thanks for continuing to advocate for this point (and for all the art along the way).
Consider this: The internet was never supposed to be for the public. It was designed for the government in case of nuclear war (and yes, Al Gore had a role in creating it), following the Cuban Missile Crisis. Email has been around since 1972. The first email I got was in 1989, when I was 30 years old at Wayne State. I had no idea what it was. I was 40 when I got my first email address and 41 when I brought my first laptop. I had NetZero, a dial-up, as my first internet provider (man, the sound that thing made was wild). Internet cafes and libraries. I remember Sixdegrees and Friendster and MSN and Yahoo Chat, well before Facebook and Twitter. With a few keystrokes, I can call up my MSN Messenger with people I talked to 20 years ago. Amazing that I'm nearly 67 years old and still able to write and communicate.
When you meet your end (in 100 years fighting along side Grierson in the galactic wars) and meet your maker, if they ask you to see your stats, would you say yes?
Every time you write about the internet and media and journalism, I start what would be a long comment given my long career in media/journalism and now marketing, especially on the digital side. But then something else always transfixes me and THIS time it was your goodbye flyer for the event at Dusk. I haven’t thought about that place in years! My friend opened it, another friend had his wedding after-party there, and I spent too many Saturday nights during those heady early dot-com days talking with friends wondering if we’d ever see a piece of the action. A lifetime ago for sure!
How come the DC included the cartoon movie ‘Mask of the Phantasm’ and ‘The Killing Joke’ but didn’t include ‘Dark Knight Returns’ is it because Dark Knight Returns was a 2 parter?
If Google and social Media are no longer sending people to external links and/or are giving you the answer within their page, often algorithmically chosen for you, not just the next post from the people you follow, then it’s time to end the fiction that they are the phone company and not what they are ‘publishers’
Once you treat them as publishers then they will be held to the same legal regime that impacts news publishers, with their army of lawyers on hand to ensure they don’t publish anything libelous
This seems to me the simplest way to bring the tech behemoths to heel, and the large media orgs would obviously support this so it is a fight you could win in the court of public opinion
The moment something you see on Facebook or TikTok or Youtube is not there because it was posted by someone you follow, but is there because the algorithm put it in front of you, then it has been published by the social media site and should be legally treated the same way a story on page 1 of the NYT is treated
This would immediately put the brakes on the radicalisation spiral we know social media is responsible for and I remain perplexed that nobody is pushing for this
I generally agree with Matt. I don't want to see the Tournament expanded. The only adjustment I would like to see is Mid Major conference champions to get more consideration in the Tournament invites. Since many mid majors are one-bid leagues, a team that wins it conference championship and loses in their conference tournament will not get an invite. In the power conferences, that doesn't happen. Here's where my adjustment comes in... the play in games should give those mid major conference champs the bids, if they failed to win their conference tournaments.
I don't understand why the NCAA Tournament wouldn't expand. We have more Div 1 programs than ever before. The world isn't going to end if they go to 76 teams or whatever.
This piece, like “Employee of the Month” in 2023, is one that reassures me. When I keep that View Stats button unclicked, I still feel that magic of writing and sharing something that wasn’t there before.
Thanks for continuing to advocate for this point (and for all the art along the way).
Thank you for this. Also, I was honored, and moved, by your review of LLOYD. Thank you for that as well.
Consider this: The internet was never supposed to be for the public. It was designed for the government in case of nuclear war (and yes, Al Gore had a role in creating it), following the Cuban Missile Crisis. Email has been around since 1972. The first email I got was in 1989, when I was 30 years old at Wayne State. I had no idea what it was. I was 40 when I got my first email address and 41 when I brought my first laptop. I had NetZero, a dial-up, as my first internet provider (man, the sound that thing made was wild). Internet cafes and libraries. I remember Sixdegrees and Friendster and MSN and Yahoo Chat, well before Facebook and Twitter. With a few keystrokes, I can call up my MSN Messenger with people I talked to 20 years ago. Amazing that I'm nearly 67 years old and still able to write and communicate.
Well said, Will. I come from the world of punk rock zines but feel the same way that you do.
Little off topic here, but did you ever run across Wellness by Nathan Hill? I got it last week (at Righton Books!) and blew through it in a week.
One of the better novels I’ve read the last few years and a perfect look at Gen X life (both now and in the 90s). Highly, highly recommend.
I have heard good things!
Great reminder of the miracle of being able to make something and put it out into the world. Thank you!
When you meet your end (in 100 years fighting along side Grierson in the galactic wars) and meet your maker, if they ask you to see your stats, would you say yes?
Every time you write about the internet and media and journalism, I start what would be a long comment given my long career in media/journalism and now marketing, especially on the digital side. But then something else always transfixes me and THIS time it was your goodbye flyer for the event at Dusk. I haven’t thought about that place in years! My friend opened it, another friend had his wedding after-party there, and I spent too many Saturday nights during those heady early dot-com days talking with friends wondering if we’d ever see a piece of the action. A lifetime ago for sure!
Never thought I’d see this guy batting “leadoff” on a mix-disc!
https://www.sportlots.com/Baseball/Player_values/Mike-Shannon.tpl
How come the DC included the cartoon movie ‘Mask of the Phantasm’ and ‘The Killing Joke’ but didn’t include ‘Dark Knight Returns’ is it because Dark Knight Returns was a 2 parter?
(I think so? I don't remember. Also, I think we missed Joker 2 as well.)
If Google and social Media are no longer sending people to external links and/or are giving you the answer within their page, often algorithmically chosen for you, not just the next post from the people you follow, then it’s time to end the fiction that they are the phone company and not what they are ‘publishers’
Once you treat them as publishers then they will be held to the same legal regime that impacts news publishers, with their army of lawyers on hand to ensure they don’t publish anything libelous
This seems to me the simplest way to bring the tech behemoths to heel, and the large media orgs would obviously support this so it is a fight you could win in the court of public opinion
The moment something you see on Facebook or TikTok or Youtube is not there because it was posted by someone you follow, but is there because the algorithm put it in front of you, then it has been published by the social media site and should be legally treated the same way a story on page 1 of the NYT is treated
This would immediately put the brakes on the radicalisation spiral we know social media is responsible for and I remain perplexed that nobody is pushing for this
I could not agree more.
Loved this essay, but as I read it, my mind was stuck on “in conversation with Jeff Garlin.” Please explain his involvement in your book tour.
He's just a long time reader and asked if I'd be interested!
I generally agree with Matt. I don't want to see the Tournament expanded. The only adjustment I would like to see is Mid Major conference champions to get more consideration in the Tournament invites. Since many mid majors are one-bid leagues, a team that wins it conference championship and loses in their conference tournament will not get an invite. In the power conferences, that doesn't happen. Here's where my adjustment comes in... the play in games should give those mid major conference champs the bids, if they failed to win their conference tournaments.
Surprised to see a Jewel song on your birthday list.....
Despise that everything has to be monetized. C’mon, $300,000 for a pickleball tournament?
Pickleball?
“There Are Some Things He Should Keep to Himself” is the best story in “How We Are Hungry”.
I don't understand why the NCAA Tournament wouldn't expand. We have more Div 1 programs than ever before. The world isn't going to end if they go to 76 teams or whatever.
I recommend you read the piece, it addresses this exact question!