Trends

Is a million a lot?

We often use the word “million” to mean something big – but in an era of inflationary everything, do we need to size up our language as well? What does a million dollars mean? A million views? A million users? While most of us would be pretty excited to achieve any of those tallies, today this milestone falls somewhere in the middle more often than not – and that might be causing some issues.

May 9, 2023

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Does TV matter anymore?

This week started off with a bang. In the span of just a few minutes, two of the biggest names in cable news were unexpectedly fired. Though they’re on opposite sides of the political spectrum, CNN’s Don Lemon and Fox News’s Tucker Carlson found themselves on the same side of unemployment – and some are calling it the biggest day in cable news history. Except, does any of this matter anymore?

April 25, 2023

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Twitter's done for

It’s taken nearly half a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter, but it seems that the pot’s finally gotten warm enough where the frogs are jumping. It’s sad that essentially one man can ruin something used by hundreds of millions. Twitter wasn’t perfect, but it was something valuable. And now it’s gone.

April 10, 2023

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Social media, according to a classroom of undergrads

Snapchat is dead. Pinterest has lots of love. TikTok is confusing. These are some of the takeaways from one of my favorite discussions of the semester: my focus group. Here's what a room full of 20ish-year-old college students in New York City have to say about the state of our digital life.

March 22, 2023

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Mind the hype cycle

I’ve been finding myself making the same hand gesture on a lot of Zoom calls recently. I flick my finger up, wiggle it up and down, and trail off to the right in a straight line.I draw this oscillating line when I talk about AI. Or crypto. Or the “metaverse.” Or even Taylor Swift tickets. It’s the hype cycle.

March 15, 2023

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Ben Guttmann