Ian Bogost
The Curse of an Open Floor Plan
A flowing, connected interior—once a fringe experiment of American architectural modernism—has become ubiquitous, and beloved. But it promises a liberation from housework that remains a fantasy.
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Jose Luis Magana / AP Alex Jones and Marco Rubio Explain the Internet
The encounter between the Infowars host and the Florida senator offers a perfect summary of why life online is so terrible.
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John Raoux / AP The Irony of the Jacksonville Mass Shooting
Two former athletes were killed playing a supposedly safer, video-game alternative to football.
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Giles Clarke / Getty Welcome to the Age of Privacy Nihilism
Google and Facebook are easy scapegoats, but companies have been collecting, selling, and reusing your personal data for decades, and now that the public has finally noticed, it’s too late. The personal-data privacy war is long over, and you lost.
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Found Image Holdings / Corbis / Getty Why It Feels So Terrible to Drop Your Kid at College
The freedom of adulthood makes parents lose touch with dread, and emptying the nest offers a certain, and sometimes unwelcome, return to it.
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Andrea Leoni / Getty More Bridges Will Collapse
Two disasters in Europe are the latest examples of the decline of infrastructure—as an idea as much as a physical thing.
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Ian Bogost The Mopeds Are Coming
Shared, electric motor scooters are racing to catch up with Bird, Lime, and other kick-scooter brands, as tech companies attempt to reinvent urban mobility. But can these vehicles ever find a place in America?
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Andrew Wong / Getty Apple Is Worth One Trillion Dollars
This is what it really looks like to “change the world.”
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Mandel Ngan / Getty Facebook’s Big Disinformation Bust Is Cold Comfort
The company found, and removed, possible election interference on its platforms. But the government, and the world, is too reliant on the company to protect democracy.
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Justin Sullivan / Getty Something Is Wrong at Facebook
But that doesn’t mean the company is doomed.
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Dado Ruvic / Reuters Europe’s Smack to Google May Only Be the Beginning
The European Commission’s record-breaking fines for Google foreshadow a larger regulatory invasion of the U.S. technology industry.
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Rich Pedroncelli / AP Driving Without a Smartphone
A new law in Georgia discourages drivers from even touching a screen. Whether or not it improves safety, it could help break people’s phone habits.
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Ian Waldie / Getty The Way Police Identified the Capital Gazette Shooter Was Totally Normal
… and a reminder that your photo is probably stored in a government database.
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Jill Kitchener / Reuters Why Is There a ‘Gaming Disorder’ But No ‘Smartphone Disorder?’
The World Health Organization has proposed a behavioral addiction pathology for excessive video-game playing. But maybe the problem is in the economy more than the mind.
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Josh Cochran What Petty Nextdoor Posts Reveal About America
The hyperlocal social-media platform highlights small grievances—and proves that neighbors have more in common than they think.
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Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Apple's Airpods Are an Omen
The company’s slick, wireless earbuds work great, but they foreshadow startling changes to the social fabric.
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Chip Somodevilla / Getty The Senate Votes Against the Net-Neutrality Rollback
But it was just a resolution to “disapprove”—a far cry from stopping the repeal.
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Robert Daly / Caiaimage / Getty Why 'Stories' Took Over Your Smartphone
The format, made popular by Snapchat and Instagram, is the native genre of glass rectangles.
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Daniel Stolle Alexa Is a Revelation for the Blind
Legally blind since age 18, my father missed out on the first digital revolution.
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AP / Joe Marquette / Reuters / Leah ... The Dot-Coms Were Better Than Facebook
Twenty years ago, another high-profile tech executive testified before Congress. It was a more innocent time.
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Ben Margot / AP Silicon Valley 'Has No Words'
After a shooting at YouTube’s corporate campus, technology CEOs offer platitudes. Shouldn’t they have more to say?
