Mashable: Best of the nice internet in 2020, so far. “We’re officially halfway through 2020 and it’s, uh, not great, Bob! Between the global pandemic and the massive social unrest, many of us are left anxious without much to do but…stare at our screens and become more anxious. In addition to being a hellscape, the internet is — thankfully — also always home to some wholesomeness, no matter what’s going on IRL. Here’s some niceness that’ll keep you going throughout the rest of the year (well, hopefully):”
internet culture
CNET: Memes toss first half of 2020 into the blazing dumpster where it belongs
CNET: Memes toss first half of 2020 into the blazing dumpster where it belongs. “Goodbye and good riddance, first six months of 2020. You were a dumpster fire of a half-year, with your global pandemic and your murder hornets, and the second half of the year better not be taking cues from you. July 2 marks the midpoint of most calendar years, since there are generally 182 days behind it and 182 days after it. (Since this is a leap year, there are 183 days behind us now.) As we turn the cursed calendar page to July, the internet was quick to try to find some laughs in the debacle that was January through June, and to envision what July through December might have in store for an already exhausted world.”
Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page (Mashable)
Mashable: Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page. “It may seem like it has been part of the internet landscape forever, but Reddit — which turns 15 Tuesday — is a mere teenager. An uncoordinated, gangly teenager that still struggles with its size, its group of friends, and truly damning content in its browser history.”
When Hollywood finally noticed the web: What it got right and oh so wrong (CNET)
CNET: When Hollywood finally noticed the web: What it got right and oh so wrong. “It began in May 1995 with the release of Johnny Mnemonic, a delirious sci-fi action dystopia matching Keanu Reeves with seminal cyberpunk author William Gibson. In July, Sandra Bullock had her identity erased in conspiracy thriller The Net. In August, Denzel Washington pursued Russell Crowe’s computer-generated serial killer in Virtuosity, and in September Angelina Jolie found her breakthrough role in anarchic adventure Hackers. In October, Kathryn Bigelow served up dystopian thriller Strange Days.”
1843 Magazine: The internet, mon amour
1843 Magazine: The internet, mon amour. “Thirty-five years ago the internet was a fantasia, to be slipped into like Narnia, at the back of a shameful closet, out of sight of grown-ups. Though socially distanced, you could fall in love and have your heart broken there, but it was all your own very secret, very eccentric crisis. Now, by order of the state government, my daylight hours are supersaturated by the uniformly high-noon screen of my Macbook, as far from my Zenith interface as a craggy cave wall is from glossy magazine paper. I crave the time when the internet was a lacuna in regular existence, and not the entirety of it.”
The Next Web: How the soap and crown emoji subtly communicate fears and advice about coronavirus
The Next Web: How the soap and crown emoji subtly communicate fears and advice about coronavirus. “In digital communication, where visual information often conveys key ideas in memorable, pithy and fun ways, emoji is king. And as our world has changed due to COVID-19, new ways of deploying emoji have sprung up in response.”
Never lost again: Thoughts on the Google Maps revolution (UX Planet)
UX Planet: Never lost again: Thoughts on the Google Maps revolution. “Not only did Google Maps dramatically change our view of the world and transform how we find our way in it, but it created a platform that spawned billions of dollars in commerce and life-changing services. Without its easy-to-use mapping system we wouldn’t be able to call a Lyft, order takeout through DoorDash or groceries through Instacart, research reviews on Yelp, or book a hotel through Trivago or a flight through Priceline. While GPS navigation followed a convoluted path to obsolescence—an industry that became as quickly outdated as the maps on its devices—Google Maps brought the entire world to us.”
Mashable: 17 of the best Zoom memes that’ll make you laugh while working from home
Mashable: 17 of the best Zoom memes that’ll make you laugh while working from home. “There’s nothing quite so 2020 as Zoom memes. Sure, we’re all stuck inside and on endless video calls but, hey, at least we’re getting some internet content out of it! To be fair, Zoom memes are good mostly because it’s so much of reality these days. There are whole Facebook groups dedicated to the genre and we at Mashable even went out of our way to gift you great backgrounds. Without further ado, here are 17 of our favorites.”
‘I saw you were online’: How online status indicators shape our behavior (EurekAlert)
EurekAlert: ‘I saw you were online’: How online status indicators shape our behavior. “Some apps highlight when a person is online — and then share that information with their followers. When a user logs in to a website or app that uses online status indicators, a little green (or orange or blue) dot pops up to alert their followers that they’re currently online. Researchers at the University of Washington wanted to know if people recognize that they are sharing this information and whether these indicators change how people behave online.”
SupChina: Chinese Nationalists And Thai Meme-Creators Face Off On Twitter
SupChina: Chinese Nationalists And Thai Meme-Creators Face Off On Twitter. “When Thai actor Vachirawit Chivaaree retweeted a photo of Hong Kong last week, he didn’t intend to set off a Thai-China political dispute. But what happened next was one part dystopian sci-fi, and one part a regular occurrence in the age of Chinese nationalist trolls: They attacked. He apologized. And a bizarre sequence of events happened. Here’s how the saga unfolded.”
Mashable: New emoji are being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic
Mashable: New emoji are being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. “One unexpected effect of the coronavirus pandemic has to do with the colorful little pictograms we use on our phones and computers to express, well, pretty much everything: emoji. According to the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit which takes care of the Unicode Standard – a widely-used standard for character encoding on computers and phones – the release of Unicode 14.0 has been postponed by six months.”
Screen Shot: Google Docs is becoming the best entertainment of the coronavirus pandemic
Screen Shot: Google Docs is becoming the best entertainment of the coronavirus pandemic. “Apparently, keeping people under lockdown makes them go back to simpler digital pleasures. A few days ago, the MIT Technology Review questioned its readers: Why does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the internet? It seems like extreme loneliness and boredom have a way of forcing us to get out of our digital comfort zone. Just like those students who used Google Docs as a way to pass notes in class in 2019, adults all around the globe have started using the document authoring tool in very inventive ways, to say the least. Here’s how Google Docs is slowly becoming our new entertainment during self-isolation.”
New York Times: Meet Your Meme Lords
New York Times: Meet Your Meme Lords. “Future researchers can rest easy: Know Your Meme, Urban Dictionary, Creepypasta and Cute Overload have all been preserved by the Library of Congress. So has the band website for They Might Be Giants and the entire published output of The Toast, the humor site that shut down in 2016. And while the Library of Congress owns a rare print copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the web archive features the LOLCat Bible Translation Project, which rendered the bible in LOLspeak.”
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’. “As COVID-19 spreads to more cities and claims more lives, meme accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit have cranked out more content seeking light and humor amid the darkness and uncertainty. Memes poking fun at everything from hoarding toilet paper to going stir crazy while in quarantine have dominated social media feeds.”
Radio .com: Coronavirus Twitter Emoji Makes Its Debut
Radio .com: Coronavirus Twitter Emoji Makes Its Debut. “The coronavirus pandemic has spawned a new Twitter hashtag emoji for #handwashing: a pair of hands being lathered up by bubbly pink soap and rinsed by off by blue drops of water.”
