#Riot
On the intersection of technology and revolt.
Great articles, every Saturday.
On the intersection of technology and revolt.
Bill Wasik Wired Jan 2012 30min Permalink
“The key differentiator of Super-Aggregators is that they have three-sided markets: users, content providers (which may include users!), and advertisers. Both content providers and advertisers want the user’s attention, and the latter are willing to pay for it.”
Ben Thompson Stratechery Apr 2019 Permalink
An investigation into the Russian troll farm called the Internet Research Agency.
Adrian Chen New York Times Magazine Jun 2015 20min Permalink
The trouble with the all-but-obligatory networking site, “an Escher staircase masquerading as a career ladder.”
Ann Friedman The Baffler Sep 2013 15min Permalink
The social network positioned its plan to bring the internet to millions of Indians as a gift. The country saw a catch.
Rahul Bhatia The Guardian May 2016 25min Permalink
A murder case in Mississippi catches the eye of amateur sleuths on Facebook, who proceed to harass everyone involved in the case.
Katie J.M. Baker Buzzfeed Jun 2015 30min Permalink
On the man who has turned the grunt work of packing into a social media phenomenon.
Carolyn Kormann New Yorker Jun 2015 10min Permalink
On the service’s multiple origin stories.
Nick Bilton New York Times Magazine Oct 2013 25min Permalink
“None of this should have ever happened. It makes absolutely no sense at all. It’s truly crazy.”
Matt Stopera Buzzfeed Mar 2015 20min Permalink
“I laugh off 90 percent of the stuff I’m sent,” Wu says. “But it’s the 10 percent.”
David Whitford Inc. Mar 2015 10min Permalink
How a young entrepreneur built a media empire by repackaging memes.
Andrew Marantz New Yorker Dec 2014 20min Permalink
Creating, and then attempting to dismantle, a fake persona based on a man who died in 1984.
Andrew O'Hagan London Review of Books Dec 2014 35min Permalink
How Facebook ‘likes’ landed Jelani Henry in Rikers.
Ben Popper The Verge Dec 2014 20min Permalink
“Traffic was never the problem. Everything else was.”
Seth Fiegerman Mashable Dec 2014 35min Permalink
A teenager orchestrates his own attempted murder via an Internet chatroom.
Judy Bachrach Vanity Fair Feb 2005 30min Permalink
An investigation into the ill-fated text messaging platform ZunZuneo.
Desmond Butler, Jack Gillum, Alberto Arce AP Apr 2014 20min Permalink
“I guess what you post on Facebook matters.” An 18-year-old faces 10 years in jail for a sarcastic threat on Facebook.
Craig Malisow Dallas Observer Feb 2014 10min Permalink
Finding personal stories buried deep in the YouTube comments.
Mark Slutsky Buzzfeed Jan 2014 15min Permalink
Searching for the real reason why a bunch of kids partying at the empty home of an NFL player became a national story.
Jay Caspian Kang Grantland Nov 2013 20min Permalink
On Twitter’s pleasures and perils.
Kathryn Schulz New York Nov 2013 10min Permalink
After two cycling-related deaths, the social fitness network becomes a target.
David Darlington Bicycling Magazine Oct 2013 35min Permalink
What happened to “one of maybe 20 girls who became famous in the mid-‘00s for posting photos of themselves on image boards.”
Allie Conti The Miami New Times Oct 2013 20min Permalink
A post-acquisition profile of Tumblr’s David Karp.
Molly Young New York Sep 2013 15min Permalink
A woman starts a new job with a massive, all-knowing social media company; an excerpt from Eggers' The Circle, coming in October.
"Mae looked at the time. It was 6 o’clock. She had plenty of hours to improve, there and then, so she embarked on a flurry of activity, sending 4 zings and 32 comments and 88 smiles. In an hour, her PartiRank rose to 7,288. Breaking 7,000 was more difficult, but by 8, after joining and posting in 11 discussion groups, sending another 12 zings, one of them rated in the top 5,000 globally for that hour, and signing up for 67 more feeds, she’d done it. She was at 6,872, and she turned to her InnerCircle social feed. She was a few hundred posts behind, and she made her way through, replying to 70 or so messages, RSVPing to 11 events on campus, signing nine petitions and providing comments and constructive criticism on four products currently in beta."
Dave Eggers New York Times Magazine Sep 2013 30min Permalink
What the rapidly changing world of teenage hook-up culture means for young women.
Nancy Jo Sales Vanity Fair Sep 2013 25min Permalink