There are limits to the usefulness of naming things.  Especially when it involves shiny new coinages fueled by the hungry ghost of the internet.  When words get too sticky and our use of them sloppy, we become incurious and, worse, se...

 There’s a lot to be said about being able to feel that something is done.  Finished.  Over.  Last call.  Go home.  In Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter “The Imperfectionist,” he recently touted the importance o...

I haven’t been on an airplane in a long time.  I can only imagine how hellish it’s become; a microcosm of how well we’re generally faring being around one another.That we spend so much time in virtual landscapes obviously means we s...

The activity of the internet has been described as a “race to the bottom of the brain stem.”   Much of what we encounter online appeals to our most primal impulses.  Cause if you can access that shit, you can sell yours.<...

Last episode, I focused on online dating to consider how we’re becoming increasingly accustomed to a version of presence that is so half-assed it might as well be absence.  I’m enjoying being off the apps, by the way. A feature...

Dating apps are built on a business model that ushers users through a revolving door of disgust and desire.  Hopeful romantics ping reliably between two poles: “That’s it, I quit” and “Oh god, the crushing loneliness.”  Users a...

Increasingly, self-checkouts are being recognized as a failed experiment.  More and more stores are removing them.  They of course cite theft and over-estimated savings in staff costs for the surprising reversal, but businesses are al...

This first episode looks at a theme that will certainly come up a lot:  real things disappearing from our world, virtual things taking their place.   I think it’s important to notice when we’ve attached to objects simply b...

 My name is Caitlin, and I’m an HSP. HSP stands for highly sensitive person. Cue the eye roll, I know.   Believe me, I appreciate how fucking precious it sounds to announce that you’re a highly sens...