The Internet, Filtered

The Real Me - The Morning News

“Hey Doug,” her email continued. “Yep—I know your last name now. So, I googled you.”

Hey Internet Daters, Grow Some Balls | VICE United States

I’ve never really understood dating. Occasionally, when I’m hormonal or between jobs, I’ll give it a shot—but generally speaking, I think being single is the fucking prize. No one has to witness the horror of what you look like the morning after a huge night; you can eat week-old pizza without judgement and fart in your own bed. But, like, whatever. Right now, everyone wants to date. I’m putting it down to the Mayan end-of-the-world scare.

The older I get, the more being part of a couple has become a necessary criteria to being A Successful Adult. Less and less people are finding my stories about being single funny, and are instead giving me that misty-eyed pity stare that you give to kids with cancer or dogs that are missing a leg.

Why Social Movements Should Ignore Social Media | New Republic

Another, more insidious way is to succumb to Internet-centrism. Internet-centrists happily concede that digital tools do not always work as intended and are often used by enemies of democracy. What the Internet does is only of secondary importance to them; they are most interested in what the Internet means. Its hidden meanings have already been deciphered: decentralization beats centralization, networks are superior to hierarchies, crowds outperform experts. To fully absorb the lessons of the Internet, urge the Internet-centrists, we need to reshape our political and social institutions in its image.

Cowards Are Blackmailing Young Women to Death on the Internet | VICE

Perhaps more disturbing than the requests for reliable blackmailers, and the chatter about Amanda’s suicide, are the publicly discussed strategies the forum users follow to pursue a new target. Next to a close-up shot of the face of a woman—who appears to be in her early 20s—someone wrote, “This girl has issues with her parents they’re abusive and stuff. If pics got out it’d be bad for her since she just recently lost her paid internship. Stuff to leverage against her.”

Yeah that is pretty disturbing.

This distinction of pedophilia as a sexual orientation is an important one. It doesn’t take a psychologist to understand that no one chooses to be turned on by children. Just as homosexuals don’t choose to be attracted to the same sex, or heterosexuals to the opposite sex, the pedophiliac orientation is a result of genetics. It follows, then, that there are pedophiles who recognize the danger of their sexual urges and want to control them. Unfortunately, the stigma that our society has put on those who are attracted to children dissuades many of them from seeking help.

Indentured Servitude, Money Laundering, and Piles of Money: The Crazy Secrets of Internet Cam Girls (NSFW)

(via Instapaper)

huh

"Hey, you know what makes adults so special? They only give a shit about a handful of people. This is because they spend the majority of time being productive members of society, not pretending they are a celebrity and talking about how the vegetarian egg salad wrap they ate earlier “tasted a little funky” on Facebook. You want to know why when you look at photos of people from the 60s and 70s they look so much cooler than you? It’s because they were. They didn’t have personal ego-satellites to mind-rape the country with their inane proclivities and terrible ideas; they actually had to talk to people, like face-to-face, or on the telephone when an in-person conversation wasn’t an option. Speaking of which, how come no one talks on the phone anymore? How about we start doing that again instead of leaving impersonal comments on the profiles of people we secretly hate. It’ll save us all some time. If you must, Twitter and Instagram are far superior because their formats don’t allow for the same level of bloated self-indulgence as a MINI-WEBSITE ABOUT YOURSELF. Trust us, you’re not that interesting."

— The VICE Guide to Adulthood | VICE

How I Found the Human Being Behind Horse_ebooks, The Internet's Favorite Spambot

crazy russians.

The Emptiest Sex Cams | Motherboard

SOMEBODY SHOPS AT IKEA!!

Quality vs quantity online | Felix Salmon

I think there are two things at work here, one is that the web and sites have matured to the point that there are certain go-to sites for everyone depending on what they are interested in, it is less likely that I will search for something using Google related to sports because I know three or four sites that will probably have that information. Second, I think that the influence of connectors (or whatever the term was in Gladwell’s Tipping Point), the people who are able to influence a great deal of traffic just by recommending a link. There are plenty of tastemakers and blogs devoted to just driving traffic towards high-quality writing (like this one!).

"…bronies and pegasisters…"

— Here Are Some Adult My Little Pony Fanatics We Met at BronyCon

Internet Posting Helped Sandusky Investigators - NYTimes.com