“Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance”⁠, Horton & Wohl1956 (Lonesome Gal)

“A Deep Dive into K-pop”⁠ (it sells⁠)

“China’s Selfie Obsession: Meitu’s apps are changing what it means to be beautiful in the most populous country on earth”⁠

“The Digital Future of Tabletop Games”⁠

⁠“What ARGs Can Teach Us About QAnon” (“Who Buried Paul?”)

AIBO⁠; ilo“The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care: Many facilities are using nostalgic environments as a means of soothing the misery, panic, and rage their residents experience”⁠; “What Robots Can—and Can’t—Do for the Old and Lonely: For elderly Americans, social isolation is especially perilous. Will machine companions fill the void?”⁠; ⁠“My Parents’ Dementia Felt Like the End of Joy. Then Came the Robots”⁠

“11 Reasons Not to Become Famous (or “A Few Lessons Learned Since 2007”)”, Tim Feriss

Targeted Individuals⁠: “United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers”⁠

Munchausen Syndrome⁠: ⁠“The Lying Disease: Why Would Someone Want to Fake a Serious Illness on the Internet?”⁠; ⁠The boy who convinced his friend to murder him via false online identities⁠

Stans⁠: ⁠“Obsessed Benedict Cumberbatch Fans Tried to Have Me Fired: My encounter with internet fandom, and the rise of the celebrity relationship conspiracy theory”⁠; “How a Fake Baby Is Born: For years, women on the internet have been writing conspiracy theories about celebrity pregnancies. What sparks them?”⁠; ⁠“[Adam Driver Standom] Adam Driver Makes Fun of a Fan’s Gift in the New Yorker”⁠; see also the British monarchy, “Babygate”/Sarah Palin

“Violence and the Sacred: College [and mimetic desire] as an incubator of Girardian terror”⁠, Dan Wang

⁠“What to Make of Rod McKuen?”; “The Instagram Poet Outselling Homer 10 to 1: Meet Rupi Kaur, author of the ubiquitous Milk and Honey”⁠

⁠“AI and the Indian Election”⁠

Economics:

• ⁠“1,000 True Fans”⁠, Kevin Kelly⁠

• Cameo⁠: “How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine”; “How Cameo Blew Up During Quarantine”⁠ (but then struggled⁠); “How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party: For the very rich, even the world’s biggest performers—Beyoncé, Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Andrea Bocelli—are available, at a price”⁠

• Eugene Wei: “Status as a Service”; ⁠“TikTok and the Sorting Hat”; ⁠“Seeing like An Algorithm”

• Turner Novak: “The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company ByteDance”, “Pinduoduo and Vertically Integrated Social Commerce”;

• Non-fungible token⁠: ⁠“When the Stagnation Goes Virtual”⁠

• ⁠“Making is Show Business now”, Alex Danco

Reaction video⁠: “Why do people like videos of other people reacting to videos?”

Streaming:

• ⁠“The Blurred Lines of Parasocial Relationships: The disappearing divide between ‘followers’ and ‘friends’”⁠; ⁠“Why Can’t We Be Friends: Podcasts and other forms of “parasocial” media reframe friendship as monetized self-care”

• “How to Get Rich Playing Video Games on Twitch: For the stars of the streaming service Twitch, success means working around the clock”⁠

• “Ice Poseidon’s Lucrative, Stressful Life as a Live Streamer”⁠

• “The Chinese Farmer Who Live-Streamed Her Life and Made a Fortune”⁠

• “The app that lets you pay to control another person’s life”⁠

• ⁠“Caught in the Study Web: Exploring Gen Z’s Ambitious and Anxiety-Fuelled Pursuit of Straight A’s Across YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and Twitter”⁠

• ⁠“The Weird World of Vegan YouTube Stars Is Imploding: Rawvana, Bonny Rebecca and Stella Rae are eating animal products, triggering outrage and an identity crisis”

• ⁠“The Rise of the $10 Million Disc Golf Celebrity: How much can athletes really make in niche sports? A whole lot more than you might think. Disc golfer Paul McBeth set a new standard by signing an 8-figure endorsement contract—and his deal might only be the beginning”⁠

• People’s Republic of Desire⁠

• “The Twitching Generation: Around the world, doctors have noticed teenage patients reporting the sudden onset of Tourette’s tics. Is this the first illness spread by social media?”⁠

• “On Discord, Music Fans Become Artists’ Besties, Collaborators, and Even Unpaid Interns: Originally launched as a messaging app for gamers, the platform has become an intimate place for artists and fans to connect and build community. Can this fragile ecosystem last?”

• “The Business of Phish”

• Virtual Youtuber⁠: “The overworked humans behind China’s virtual influencers: Hidden behind the perfect faces of China’s $16 billion virtual celebrity industry is an angry, overworked labor force.”; Kizuna AI⁠/Hololive Production⁠/Nijisanji⁠/VShojo⁠ (“It’s rare to hear <70% female for chat products…”⁠); “How Chinese influencers use AI digital clones of themselves to pump out content: Questions over honesty and legality as livestreamers, particularly in online shopping, use avatars to boost their earnings”⁠

• Gambling: “An NFL linebacker quit football to sell Pokémon cards, now he’s making millions”⁠

• Chess: “How Magnus Carlsen Turned Chess Skill Into a Business Empire”⁠/“The New Economics of Chess”⁠; ⁠“Chess.com finds streaming success”; “The Most Popular Chess Streamer on Twitch: The former chess prodigy Hikaru Nakamura was widely disliked on the professional circuit. Then he started streaming”⁠; “The [Alexandra] Botez Gambit: An enterprising chess streamer finds her opening”

Porn:

Mir­rors and com­pu­ta­tion are abom­inable, since they both mul­ti­ply the num­bers of men.