Thanks to the pandemic, I’m spending way more time inside than usual. Which, in turn, means I’m spending way more time staring at screens. Basically, within seconds of waking up, I’m looking at my phone, before transitioning to my laptop all day, only to return to my...
I quite honestly don’t remember the last time I unplugged my phone charger. I keep it right next to my side of the bed, ready to support my hours of doom-scrolling before my brain gives me permission to sleep. I’m lucky that I don’t have to pay much...
I remember my first chip-filled sandwich like it was yesterday. My friend and I — both early adolescents — had just endured a routine, but strenuous water polo practice at our community pool. As we stepped out of the modest aquatic center, our hair still damp and...
Taking a decent profile picture is never easy, even for the most photogenic and tech-savvy among us. But those of us who were born into a world of camera phones and social media have a slight advantage over everyone else, including our dads, who have quite the...
Although many companies are now showing vocal support for the #BlackLivesMatter protests, there are plenty who are not. If you find yourself working in a place where company culture, or worse, the company’s actual actions, go against the values you hold, what are your options? Should you...
Last week, #BlackoutTuesday started out as a day for non-Black allies to amplify Black voices and acknowledge the ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. But as the message went viral, it had the opposite effect: The black squares took over social...
On a recent Sunday, the 17th of May, 2020, one of the greatest fights in internet history turned 12 years old. It started with an innocent question on bodybuilding.com about how many days a week you can safely work out. It concluded in an absolute bloodbath between two...
As someone who falls asleep while scrolling through Twitter only to start off the next morning the exact same way, it didn’t take long after the coronavirus pandemic hit to overdose on bad news and spiral my way into a 40-minute sit-down shower. Twitter, Facebook, conversations with each friend group on Zoom — everywhere I...
Part of the reason our phones are so filthy is that we tend to bring them everywhere. Like, we’re probably scrolling in between wiping our butts. Unless we’re bringing our computers with us into the bathroom (seek help, if so), there’s a bit more of a barrier in place —...
A while back, in the same week that many schools and offices went entirely online to curb the coronavirus spread, my internet betrayed me. Pulling up Google became an achievement, and streaming even the shortest of videos was completely out of the question. As a result, my life...
Becoming a cyborg could have been liberating. In 1985, scholar Donna Haraway posited that as the categories of human, animal and machine became blurred, the rigid boundaries of gender, labor and other symbolic oppressors could collapse. In some ways, the smartphone has made progress toward this end: In cyborg fashion,...
Like a new cohort of workers affected by the coronavirus, I work remotely from my apartment. On a daily basis, my colleagues cooperate with my bulging head, projected like the Wizard of Oz on an enormous flat screen in our faraway headquarters. The same corkboard where I keep...