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Grabbag and Chills

Politics, history, philosophy, my favorite pieces of internet candy, and other things that I can’t squeeze into my other publications

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Internet

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Oct 22, 2019

“Old people can’t open new tabs and it’s fueling our descent into hell”

“It should go without saying that, outside of maybe the executive level, there are very few grandparents working at tech companies. Because of this, there’s rarely anyone in the room who’s truly able to…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Apr 26, 2019

“Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read”

“In the internet age, recall memory — the ability to spontaneously call information up in your mind — has become less necessary. It’s still good for bar trivia, or remembering your to-do list, but largely, Horvath says, what’s called recognition memory is…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Mar 26, 2019

“There’s a reason using a period in a text message makes you sound angry”

“Because text messaging is a conversation that involves a lot of back-and-forth, people add fillers as a way to mimic spoken language. We see this with the increased use of ellipses, which can invite the…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Mar 10, 2019

“How Syria’s White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine”

“The White Helmets, officially known as the Syria Civil Defence, is a humanitarian organisation made up of 3,400 volunteers — former teachers, engineers, tailors and firefighters — who rush to pull…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Feb 5, 2019

“The Great War of EVE Online”

“EVE Online is a massive multiplayer online game — a single environment shared by thousands of players, like World of Warcraft or Second Life — that has been in continual operation since 2003. It contains all the set pieces of space opera — moons, distant outposts, mighty…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Nov 17, 2018

“MYANMAR’S INTERNET DISRUPTED SOCIETY — AND FUELED EXTREMISTS”

“six years ago the government realized that modernity was allowing once-poorer neighboring countries to surge ahead, so it began to democratize. Aung San Suu Kyi, a founder of the National League for Democracy, was freed…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Sep 18, 2018

“LOVE IN THE TIME OF CRYPTOGRAPHY”

““I feel like what we keep in our minds is more important,” he wrote to me over WhatsApp recently. “The accuracy of it is…mah.” This is his disdain for this digital accuracy, and it captures something. There’s an obvious, almost legalistic veracity of moment-to-moment…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Jun 3, 2018

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Eating Tide Pods”

“I see several themes coalescing to give the Tide pod memes their unique resonance and staying power in this moment. To begin with, there’s the telling age inflation, which speaks to the infantilizing aspect of new American…

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Mar 25, 2018

“When Pixels Collide”

“For April Fool’s Day, Reddit launched a little experiment. It gave its users, who are all anonymous, a blank canvas called Place…

First came the Creators. They were the artists to whom the blank canvas was an irresistible opportunity.

Jess Brooks in Grabbag and Chills

Mar 14, 2018

“An army of history nerds is turning archival material into beautiful gifs”

““There’s a conception that maps and vintage things are dusty and good for research and not much else,” says DPLA’s Kenny Whitebloom. GIF It Up seeks to bust open this once-dusty trove for greater…