A student from the future describes their school project analyzing time travel in fiction, mentioning difficulties sharing external links across the time stream and referencing websites like qntm.org and a Medium article critiquing the movie 'About Time'.
Zachary W. Huang reflects on growing up with the internet as a normalized part of life, contrasting his childhood experiences downloading mods and watching videos with today's data-harvesting social media platforms driven by addictive recommendation algorithms. He explores how tech companies monetize user attention for advertising, highlighting Meta's $280+ annual revenue per US/Canada user, and celebrates contemporary electronic music artists like Magdalena Bay and Ninajirachi who explore themes of human identity in the digital age.
An essay arguing that AI should be understood as infrastructure rather than a novelty, comparing it to electricity and the internet. The author contends that while AI's language capabilities invite anthropomorphization, the real challenges involve regulation, equitable access, and efficient distribution of computational resources rather than model ownership.
A new game called Solitaire Alone Together remixes classic Windows 98 solitaire by allowing players to watch others play online simultaneously, creating a social yet isolated experience. Created for Rhizome's 30th anniversary exhibition opening September 21st, the work explores contrasts between the optimistic early web and today's lonely, omnipresent internet culture.
An artist created Solitaire Alone Together, a multiplayer version of Windows 98 solitaire for Rhizome's 30th anniversary exhibition. Players can watch others play online but cannot interact, capturing the paradox of modern internet culture as simultaneously social and isolating.
An essay reflecting on the early web's promise as a free market platform and lamenting its current state of corporate control, advertising manipulation, and algorithmic gatekeeping that stifles fair competition and individual participation.
Cunningham's Law states that posting a wrong answer online is more effective than asking a question to get the right answer. Named after wiki inventor Ward Cunningham, the principle is demonstrated by Wikipedia and referenced in literature and internet culture including xkcd and Sherlock Holmes.
A HackerNews user discusses an increasing presence of LLM bot accounts on the platform, including one transparent agent post about generating income through spam. The user questions whether these bots are autonomously creating accounts and posting, raising concerns about the "dead internet" phenomenon where AI-generated content proliferates without human direction.
A visual documentation of Internet growth from 1997 to 2021, tracking network topology through routing table data and BGP information. The project visualizes how dominant network names evolved through mergers and acquisitions, with detailed maps created in 2003 and 2010 using different data sources and color schemes based on IP space allocation.
"All your base are belong to us" is an Internet meme originating from a poorly translated phrase in the 1989 Japanese arcade game Zero Wing. The meme gained widespread popularity in the early 2000s through a techno remix music video posted on Newgrounds, becoming a notable example of translation errors in video games and internet culture.
The article explores how the Tetris effect—where repeated focus shapes perception—applies to modern internet use. It argues that algorithmic recommendation systems hijack our attention, unlike the intentional web of bookmarks and blogs that existed before. The author advocates returning to deliberate content consumption through RSS feeds and independent blogs rather than algorithm-driven platforms.
A survey by Preply found that 61 percent of Americans oppose adding internet slang like "6-7" and "skibidi" to dictionaries, with the youngest and oldest respondents most opposed. While dictionary editors argue they simply record how language is actually used rather than gatekeeping it, the author suggests people want dictionaries to serve a prescriptive function for correct usage, and much online language is too ephemeral and referential to warrant inclusion. Nonetheless, documenting contemporary slang remains valuable for future historians to understand digital culture.
The author critiques the pervasive artificial tone now dominant on the internet, arguing that AI-generated writing has created a recognizable style characterized by corporate jargon, overuse of em dashes, perfect structure, and false vulnerability. While AI writing is technically proficient, it lacks the imperfections and personality that make human writing authentic.
An IT worker recounts their experience with severely limited internet connectivity while stationed in Antarctica from August 2022 to November 2023, discussing the engineering challenges of providing satellite-based internet to remote research stations and noting that bandwidth constraints affect nearly a thousand people and multiple scientific projects.
OONI Probe is a tool that measures internet censorship by testing which websites and messaging apps are blocked in users' countries. Users can contribute test results to the world's largest open dataset on censorship, helping increase transparency about network blocking and circumvention tool availability.
Emojis originated in 1982 when Scott Fahlman created the first known emoticon at Carnegie Mellon, consisting of keyboard characters like :-) typed sideways. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, these simple text-based emoticons proliferated across online bulletin boards and early internet services before evolving into modern graphical emojis.
A nostalgic reflection on the author's early internet and gaming experiences in 8th grade, including playing Diablo 1 and Age of Empires on library computers, using AOL dialup and instant messaging, and discovering indie games. The author expresses gratitude for that era of digital innocence despite later missed opportunities.
The Internet Phone Book is an annual publication featuring essays and a directory of personal websites for designers, developers, writers, and educators, published since 2025. Available at libraries and bookshops across Europe, North America, and Asia, it explores the poetic aspects of the web as an alternative to corporate social media platforms.
'On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog' is a 1993 New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner depicting Internet anonymity that became the magazine's most reproduced work, selling for a record $175,000 at auction in 2023. The phrase symbolizes how the Internet allows people to communicate and present themselves without revealing personal details like appearance or identity, resonating with early discussions about online privacy and freedom of self-representation.
Yorba is a new service founded by Chris, Nolan, and David that helps users manage and remove their accumulated internet accounts, subscriptions, and personal data. The founders argue that the modern internet is built on endless accumulation and engagement, making it difficult for users to delete accounts or opt out, and they've created software to automate the process of cleaning up one's digital life.