Internet

Want to Understand the Internet? Consider the "Great Stink" of 1858 London

Bad information online is a concern. But the history of public health shows that understanding how it spreads and circulates is critical to fighting it. 

The Dangerous Delusion of the Big Data Utopia

by Jill Lepore

Why has "data" supplanted metaphysical inquiry, empirical observation, and even standard statistical analysis as the go-to source for understanding the world? Is data science the latest episode in a history of technological utopianism? 

Don't Like Where Society's Heading? Blame Palo Alto

by Scott W. Stern

Journalist Malcolm Harris attempts to excavate the history of how a worldview shaped by the tech industry—most notably its rampant individualism and subordination of the self to surveillance, metrics and monitoring—conquered the world, while also keeping the flames of unregulated capitalism and eugenics burning. 

Native Wikipedians Fight Back against Erasure of Indigenous History

by Kyle Keeler

While the internet is often seen as a hotbed of revisionism and "political correctness," Wikipedia editors who seek the inclusion of indigenous perspectives on American history often are stymied by resistant editors and the platform's rules, which discount the reliability of new, critical scholarship. 

Can Silicon Valley Be Redeemed? (Review Essay)

by Margaret O'Mara

Three books collectively demand a reckoning with Silicon Valley's immense social power; tech executives would do well to listen, says a technology historian. 

The Missouri Social Worker Who Founded the Global Internet Name Registry

by Ayden Férdeline

Marilyn Cade played a major role in establishing the global governance structure of the internet. 

The Internet is Lousy Because of Capitalism, Not Bad Apple CEOs

by Matthew Crain

"Surveillance advertising was created by marketers, technology start-ups, investors, and politicians, a coalition bound by the desire to commercialize the web as quickly as possible."

Ben Tarnoff on Building an Internet for the People

While the media pays significant attention to the influence of social media platforms, the structure of the internet is dicated by the privatization of the physical architecture of the internet since the 1990s. 

Meet the New Middleman, Same as the Old Middleman

by Kathryn Judge

The internet's promise to cut out any number of middlemen from the consumer experience has been a failure. 

The Internet’s Favorite Catalog of Weird Places Rewrites History

The popular internet site Atlas Obscura has undertaken to rewrite many of its articles to include more diverse perspectives on the unusual places they describe. 

To Navigate the Dangers of the Web, You Need Critical Thinking – But Also Critical Ignoring

by Sam Wineburg

"Learning to ignore information is not something taught in school. School teaches to read a text thoroughly and closely before rendering judgment. But on the web, where a witches’ brew of advertisers, lobbyists, conspiracy theorists and foreign governments conspire to hijack attention, critical ignoring is just as important as critical thinking."

The Man Who Helped Turn 4chan Into the Internet's Racist Engine

A look at the people who enabled the creation of a far-right sewer of racism and bigotry on the internet.

The Joke’s on Us

Communications scholar Whitney Phillips argues that the irony-drenched culture of the internet allowed serious white supremacy, nazism and misogyny to flourish unchecked. From the Klan to the Nazis, the far right has benefitted from sowing confusion about what was serious and what was a joke. 

Marshall McLuhan: The Man Who Predicted the Internet and Warned Us of its Dangers

by Ludovic Rembert

These days, most of Professor McLuhan's "global village" is kept in private and confined spaces: the village plaza is Facebook, a space that is operated for commercial purposes, restricting our discussions and absorbing our private data within our conversations and searches to sell it to advertisers.

The Pandemic Is Not an Excuse to Exploit Writers

by Douglas Preston

Internet Archive’s “National Emergency Library” is meant to benefit consumers during the coronavirus crisis. Authors everywhere are losing.

How Games Marketing Invented Toxic Gamer Culture

How early marketing campaigns for online gaming platforms suggested toxicity isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Internet Historians Mourn Loss Of Cultural Record As Yahoo Prepares To Delete Groups

At one time, there were 10 million Yahoo Groups with more than 100 million users - from neighborhood organizations to amateur astronomers. On Saturday, the archives disappeared.

The Internet at 50: The future and “dissolving containers”

by Harlan Lebo

The internet has long been on a path of constant reinvention, with flux being the sole constant. The biggest question of all is: where will digital technology go next? 

The Internet at 50: The Night the Internet Was Born

by Harlan Lebo

If there was a single moment that would define the start of the technology that would become the internet – this was it: the future was born. 

The Internet At 50: How the Dot-Com Bubble Burst

by Harlan Lebo

As a cautionary tale and a business school lesson about irrational investor expectations, no modern example proved better than the dot-com bubble.