Category: Internet

  • Why Musk is Stalling

    Elon Musk seems to have accepted that he will have to do what he promised and acquire Twitter, but now he is delaying the close of the deal. He has a good reason, but it’s not the one you think. The late Steve Jobs was so persuasive that people said he had a “reality distortion…

  • Misinformation & “Prebunking,” Experience Stacks & Physical Objects

    A study suggests that inoculating internet users against misinformation might be more successful than fact checking later, but I’m not so sure. Plus, a price sticker triggers a trip down memory lane. The Limits of “Prebunking” in the Fight Against Misinformation A new study in the journal Science Advances, “Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on…

  • Surveillance Capitalism Bedtime Stories…

    … if you don’t want to get much sleep. Although the privacy issues are paramount, another problem with companies compiling vast amounts of information about us is that we don’t know what they know. Companies spying on Americans for our entertainment and their profit is nothing new. How else can we understand Candid Camera, the show…

  • Why Walmart Should Buy Paramount

    Note: I wrote and first published the following column on Sunday, August 14, before the rumors came true the following day: Walmart had signed an agreement with Paramount. You can find a review of that news here. However, nothing about the news changes my argument that Walmart is missing a bigger opportunity, which is the topic of what follows. …

  • What Twitter should do next (after Musk)

    Now that the Tesla CEO is riding off into the sunset, the social media company needs to skip the protracted court battle and focus on what’s important. On Friday, Elon Musk made official his desire to wiggle out of his Twitter acquisition. Many Dispatch readers kindly and gratifyingly reached out or posted saying “Brad, you called this one!”…

  • Analog Lives in a Digital World

    What makes things special, memorable, satisfying often has less to do with the things themselves than with the context where we experience them. Some mysteries are eternal. If the Coyote can afford all those expensive items sold by the Acme Company, then why doesn’t he just visit a desert KFC to eat plumper poultry than…

  • What Fox News Should Have Said

    A new campaign by Check My Ads to get advertisers to stop supporting the conservative news network prompted an entirely inadequate response.  On Thursday, the folks at Check My Ads received widespread coverage about their new campaign to stop advertisers from supporting Fox News. The three Check My Ads founders—Claire Atkin, Nandini Jammi, and Mikel…

  • A Simple Test for What Counts as “The Metaverse”

    Lots of walled gardens and videogame platforms are now touting themselves as part of the metaverse, but there’s an easy way to tell if it’s true. Plus, revising Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Two shorter (although slightly connected) main stories this week… 1. Revisiting Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” If you subscribe to…

  • The Web3/Creator Paradox

    The latest phase of the digital revolution is a Read/Write/Own structure where more culture creators can join a new Artistic Middle Class… maybe. Calling something “Web3” makes it sound like everybody agrees on what it means. That’s not the case: we’re at the start of our Web3 journey. It might be more accurate to call it Web3.001.…

  • The Fragile Glory of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” plus… Why Apple is the right acquirer for Twitter

    Editor’s Notes: Two smaller stories this week If you like these posts, please subscribe to the newsletter version, which has lots of extra goodies and comes direct to your inbox. From the “I was right” department: Was anybody surprised when Elon Musk put his Twitter acquisition on hold? He has already gotten all of the value out…