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14 articles
Dial-up internet was slow, expensive, and tied up your phone line. So why do so many people look back on it with genuine warmth? It turns out speed isn't everything — and what we lost when we went faster might be worth thinking about.
We screenshot everything — texts, tweets, recipes, memes, moments we swore we'd revisit — and almost none of it ever gets looked at again. The screenshot button has become a reflex, and our camera rolls are paying the price. So why can't we stop?
Autocorrect was supposed to save us from typos. Instead it's been quietly rewriting our texts into something between a fever dream and a hostage note. Whether it's turning 'meeting' into something unprintable or convincing your mom you've developed a new vocabulary, autocorrect has a lot to answer for.
Every couple of years, the platform everyone swore they'd never leave suddenly becomes the place everyone's trying to escape. From MySpace to Facebook to Twitter and whatever's coming next, the great social media migrations keep happening — and the reasons behind them are more predictable than you might think.
Music streaming has turned playlist-making into a full-blown personality exercise. Whether you're obsessively organizing your Spotify library or sharing a carefully titled collection with friends, your playlists are doing a lot of talking on your behalf. Turns out, the songs you queue up say plenty about who you are — and who you want people to think you are.
Remember when cutting the cord felt like the smartest thing you could do? Fast forward a couple years and somehow you're paying for six different streaming services just to watch the shows you actually care about. The dream of à la carte TV is real — it's just a lot more complicated and expensive than anyone advertised.
Your phone buzzes. Then it buzzes again. Then a red badge appears on an app you downloaded eight months ago and forgot about. Life in 2014 means living inside a constant stream of pings, alerts, and nudges — and it's starting to wear people out in ways they're only beginning to understand.
Everyone from fitness enthusiasts to accountants is being told to 'build their brand' online in 2014. Instagram feeds are getting more curated, LinkedIn profiles are getting more polished, and somewhere in the middle of all that careful crafting, a lot of people are quietly burning out. So is the hustle worth it — or are we all just performing for an audience that isn't paying?
Before Spotify told you what to listen to and Netflix started guessing your mood, people actually had to work to find new music, movies, and books. In 2014, those old-school discovery methods are still alive — but maybe not for much longer. We look at how Americans are navigating the last days of genuinely accidental cultural discovery.
Streaming video looked like the future just a few years ago, but in 2014 it's starting to feel more like a crowded food court where everyone's selling pizza. We break down how the three biggest names in on-demand TV are bumping elbows — and why your wallet is already feeling the squeeze.
From planking on rooftops to snapping selfies with a stick longer than your arm, Americans in 2014 are doing increasingly bizarre things in public — and broadcasting all of it online for strangers to double-tap. We take a look at what's really driving the endless hunger for likes, shares, and fifteen seconds of internet fame.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon are quietly dismantling the cable TV empire one canceled subscription at a time. In 2014, the living room is becoming a battleground, and cable companies are showing up to a gunfight with a remote control. Here's how it's all going down.
Famous people have been saying dumb things in public forever — but the internet has made the consequences stick around a lot longer than a bad tabloid headline. From tone-deaf brand posts to full-on Twitter meltdowns, the years 2013 and 2014 served up some truly unforgettable lessons in what not to do online. Pull up a chair.
The 90s and early 2000s were basically a golden era of tech promises that never quite delivered. From self-balancing scooters to wearable computers to handheld TV remotes that somehow cost $300, we've rounded up 15 gadgets that had us totally convinced the future had arrived — until it didn't.