Eternal Adolescence of the Social Media Mind

The world is becoming one huge high school

Consider three recent reflections on different aspects of the Internet.

First, there is this episode of The Gospel Coalition’s Recorded podcast. The title says it all: “Scrolling Alone: How Instagram Is Making a Generation of Girls Lonely, Anxious, and Sad.” I strongly recommend your taking a few minutes out of your week to listen to the testimonies that Sarah Zylstra records from real women and girls about the traps that social media, particular Instagram, presents them. It’s one thing to read dispassionate analysis of what Internet culture seems built to do. It’s another thing to hear voices of people who are living out that design. Give it a listen.

Second, Freddie deBoer writes about an episode involving Gawker and a pretty significant allegation against the writer Thomas Chatteron Williams that turned out to be totally, completely false (I apologize for the obscenity in the title of Freddie’s post; it doesn’t represent the body of the text).