Never News: Only Reddit Remains

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BUT NOT BEFORE READING THIS NEWSLETTER. So.......let us begin.

The brat-ification of Kamala Harris is still in full swing, with the crucial addition of the Chappell Roan Midwest Princess-ification of her VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The news about Pod Save America is giving me Reply All deja vu. For your consideration: an incredible cheese-related piece of news from The Olympics. CA residents trying to find news updates about wildfires are instead bombarded with, what else, porn spam. And oh goodie, fake AI writers are even more prevalent than we thought. 

THE NEW YORKER: Breaking up with Spotify

There’s a much larger conversation that’s been happening for a while that rails against the use of Spotify, whether it’s to protest its unbelievably abysmal pay rates for artists, the poor sound quality, or any other reason. But this piece does a great job of pointing to yet another, broader issue that has been plaguing Spotify users for a while now. Writer Kyle Chayka explains it best in the article: “In 2012, Spotify launched its slogan, ‘Music for everyone.’ Now it may as well be ‘Be grateful for whatever music we give you.’” This gestures at other articles that have pointed out the odd experience of only being fed certain artists or certain songs (most notably, the ever-looming presence of Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso), but dives far deeper than anything else I’ve seen written about this issue. 

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HARPER’S BAZAAR: Trying to silence the siren song of the dating apps 

As (I think we can all agree) a seasoned scholar on the subject of dating apps, I am not often shocked or surprised by the more clickbait-y hot takes about them. The idea of whether or not dating apps are good, or if they work, or if they’re destroying our lives…all those questions are unhelpful in my mind because, like most things, the topic is complicated. But this piece in Harper’s strikes me because of its focus on the many little addictive qualities of apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and the like. When I was working on the dating apps segment for our show, that was something a lot of people talked to me about on Hinge - how it just feels good to get that serotonin boost of someone hot thinking that you, yes you!, are hot, too. Often, that’s all people use the apps for. And, as you can imagine, it’s hard to step away from that, even when you feel like you should. 

INSIDER: Reddit, the only appealing social media platform???

Forgive me, dear reader, for the confession I am about to deliver to you, but I’ve never really used Reddit. Not as a social platform, I should say. And yet, somehow the news that it is apparently the only major social media website that continues to traffic in a steady stream of new users…doesn't surprise me? I don’t really know why that is, but if you have thoughts about it, I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Is it just because it lacks the…complex…reputation of something like Twitter, the cringe quality of Facebook, the artifice of Instagram? I’m inclined to say yes to all. 

That’s all for now. Until next time, stay chill, enjoy the bounty of stone fruit season and the arrival of tomato season, and try not to get too many mosquito bites. 

And finally, a fair warning to all us brats (and perhaps a celebratory call to all brat-haters out there, whoever you may be) that “bump’n that” comes with grave responsibility, and a risk of losing oneself to hedonistic madness. Heavy is the crown, etc etc.