Good job.
(via kottke.org)
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Very cool use of the animated gif. So seamless.
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Teen Girls' And Their Phones →
Jason Kottke pulls some fascinating gems from an article on how teenage girls are using their iPhones. As a newly turned 30 year old, I’ve experienced many of the same sentiments over the years, but the pressure to always be connected keeps increasing as each new teen enters into the digital age. They have no memory of life before the internet. Surely we’ll eventually find a cultural balance with our new overlords?
“I’ll wake up in the morning and go on Facebook just … because,” Casey says. “It’s not like I want to or I don’t. I just go on it. I’m, like, forced to. I don’t know why. I need to. Facebook takes up my whole life.”
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“I bring [my iPhone] everywhere. I have to be holding it,” Casey says. “It’s like OCD — I have to have it with me. And I check it a lot.”
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Not having an iPhone can be social suicide, notes Casey. One of her friends found herself effectively exiled from their circle for six months because her parents dawdled in upgrading her to an iPhone. Without it, she had no access to the iMessage group chat, where it seemed all their shared plans were being made.
“She wasn’t in the group chat, so we stopped being friends with her,” Casey says. “Not because we didn’t like her, but we just weren’t in contact with her.”
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The most important and stress-inducing statistic of all is the number of “likes” she gets when she posts a new Facebook profile picture — followed closely by how many “likes” her friends’ photos receive. Casey’s most recent profile photo received 117 “likes” and 56 comments from her friends, 19 of which they posted within a minute of Casey switching her photo, and all of which Casey “liked” personally.
“If you don’t get 100 ‘likes,’ you make other people share it so you get 100,” she explains. “Or else you just get upset. Everyone wants to get the most ‘likes.’ It’s like a popularity contest.”
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“If I’m not watching TV, I’m on my phone. If I’m not on my phone, I’m on my computer. If I’m not doing any of those things, what am I supposed to do?” Casey says.
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The Office Shuts Off the Lights →
When it was good, The Office was truly great. In contrast to the aspirational noisiness of other sitcoms, this was a show that celebrated the smallness of everyday life, the quiet indignities and tiny failures that mar our days and the shy smiles, raised eyebrows, and harmless pranks (well, mostly harmless) that give us the resilience to do it all again tomorrow.
I used to love this show. Andy Greenwald gives it a heartfelt wake.
(via NextDraft)
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Bret Dunlap Discovered Running and It Changed His Life →
A fantastic article about a man who was made hard by a hard life, but found unexpected life through running.
You learned too young about cruelty and pity. You learned too young that explaining yourself didn’t help, that it made things worse. People laughed. Made remarks. Backed away. So you stopped explaining. You got a job, got a cat, got an apartment, and people can think what they want to think. You built a life without explanation and it was enough.
Or was it?
From a writing perspective, I enjoyed how referring to Bret as ‘you’ personalized the narrative. It made the emotional connection more powerful.
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The Scientific 7-Minute Workout →
In 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall, it fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on science.
Science! Good to know CrossFit style workouts continue to be proven. I wouldn’t want to be in great shape and not have lots of evidence to back-up it up. :)
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One chart can speak volumes about politics, history, technology, and the human race.
Taking a wider view of history helps in understanding the forces that are shaping the future. Excepting the U.S., which didn’t exist, India has by far the largest gap between it’s past and present PPP.
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I haven’t been a big Superman fan, compared to other comic based movie franchises, but these trailers hint at a super-movie. ;)
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People are continuing some crazy (stupid?) stunts in wingsuits. (via kottke.org)
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I really enjoy a well done time travel movie (12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko). Partly because you have to really pay attention, and find new details with each viewing. Just don’t look too deeply or they start to fall apart.
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Lucille: He’s had business classes.
Buster: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. 18th-century agrarian business, but I guess it’s all the same principles. Let me ask you, are you at all concerned about an uprising?Pilot - 1x01
Speaking of Arrested Development…AD quotes over scenes from GoT!
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May 26th is my best friend’s birthday AND as a present Netflix is giving her new Arrested Development episodes!
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You become what you think about all day long.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Exercise, Identity, and Depression →
When it comes to beating depression over the long–term, this is what makes exercise more powerful than medication. It’s not that medication doesn’t work — it does. But exercise does something that medication doesn’t. It proves a new identity to yourself. Each time you finish a workout, you reap the benefits of an increased sense of self–confidence. The cumulative impact of these “small wins” is enormous.
Exercising does increase self-confidence, and it’s not just because of superficial reasons like looking better. Completing goals and tracking progress change us within.
