The 211th Block: Search engines are dead
Long live search engines
This week…
Your reading time is about 7 minutes. Let’s start.
It was World Internet Day on Friday and did you know that the official name for the United Nations is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day? Wow, what a mouthful! But before November 2006, it was just World Information Society Day. But that name only lasted a year. Since 17 May 1969 up until November 2005, the UN observed World Telecommunication Day annually. Things change.
Like many of you, I started using the Internet a long time ago. Like many of you, efficient computer and Internet use is an integral part of my work and personal life. Even though I am not a coder or a desktop gamer, I can use my laptop and the Internet with just keyboard shortcuts regardless of the operating system or web browser. (When I do use a mouse, I use my non-dominant hand; I went through a period where I thought it would be sensible to limit left-right asymmetry.)
I’d like to think that my browser and inbox hygiene are tip-top. For example, the only tab I leave open on my browser is my web-based email client, and I have zero unread messages. However, I have changed laptops and default browsers several times, and there is one bookmark folder that would always make the migration with me. Today, I will share some of its content with you, with no additional context:
Letting go by David Sedaris for New Yorker. (Archive link.)
Are you an asker or a guesser? by Oliver Burkeman for The Guardian.
Why information can’t be the basis of reality by John Horgan for SciAm.
How doctors die by Ken Murray for Zócalo.
The ‘plain language’ movement wants to abolish bureaucratese. But what if regulations are obscure for a reason? by Leon Neyfakh for Boston Globe.
Sscoring the Olympic decathlon by Rhett Allain for Wired. (Archive link.)
As a doctor, I’d rather have HIV than diabetes by Max Pemberton for The Spectator. (Archive link.)
Imagine if the media covered alcohol like other drugs by German Lopez for Vox.
The needless complexity of academic writing by Victoria Clayton for The Atlantic. (Archive link.)
How a typo nearly derailed the Paris climate deal by John Vidal for The Guardian.
Native English speakers are the world’s worst communicators by Lennox Morrison for BBC.
The dentistry-medicine divide by Julie Beck for The Atlantic. (Archive link.)
The weird power of the placebo effect, explained by Brian Resnick for Vox.
The case for plain-language contracts by Shawn Burton for HBR.
My interests were… telling? Well, some things never change… And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
ICYMI: The Previous Block was about the east-west tech battle and public intellectuals in new media spaces. FWIW:
Do we really need more creators? by Chris Black for GQ. (Archive link.)
China’s secret spy by Echo Hui, Elise Potaka, and Dylan Welch for ABC News.
The collapse of the news industry is taking its soul down with it by Jack Shafer for Politico.
CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified.BAN, BAR, BULLY
Indian journalists turned to YouTube to dodge Modi’s censorship. Some of their channels are now being blocked
Raksha Kumar for Reuters Institute:
Modi’s first term in office began a process of delegitimation and co-option of the mainstream media, wrote senior journalist and media scholar Sevanti Ninan. “[The media] was denied access to government sources for primary news gathering, while the prime minister and his ministers used the state-owned media and social media to communicate with the citizenry.”
In the decade that Narendra Modi has been in power, he has not granted a single press conference and has only briefly taken questions from the press during his visit to the US and the UK. Modi’s second term has gone even further, explained Ninan. Print and television news have been co-opted and no longer provoke the government in a major way, she explained. “The effort to control is now focused on the digital media, including social media.”
Over 50% of India’s 1.3 billion people have access to the internet. This number is only said to increase in the coming years. With trust in TV news dipping, YouTube has become a critical platform for disseminating news and opinions.
Loosely linked:
China accused of ‘transnational repression’ of students by Peter Foster, Sun Yu, Andrew Jack, and Chan Ho-him for FT. (Archive link.)
Why are social media users blocking celebrities over Israel’s Gaza war? by Sarah Shamim for Al Jazeera.
How BBC World Service’s 310 exiled journalists fight censorship and harassment by Clara Aberneithie for Press Gazette.
What is Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ bill, and why is Europe so alarmed? by Joshua Berlinger and Christian Edwards for CNN.
Nouvelle-Calédonie : 4 questions sur le blocage inédit de TikTok par Julien Boitel dans Les Echos.
THE SECRET LIFE
Meet the “digital parents” giving millions in China a vision of family love they never had
Viola Zhou for Rest of World:
Fans call them their “digital parents.” The videos, which depict an idealized image of middle-class families, appeal to the unhappy children who have grown up without the same parental support. In rural China, tens of millions of “left-behind” children are typically raised by their grandparents, as their parents migrate to the cities for work. A preference for sons has led to daughters growing up under discrimination. The tradition of parents exercising absolute authority over their offspring also contributes to strained relationships.
Loosely linked:
Chinese social media companies remove posts ‘showing off wealth and worshipping money’ by Chi-Hui Lin for The Guardian.
Revealed: US university lecturer behind far-right Twitter account and publishing house by Jason Wilson for The Guardian.
Arizona woman accused of helping North Koreans get remote IT jobs at 300 companies by Dan Goodin for Ars Technica.
Urgence à France Télévisions : inventer le floutage de demain par Xavier Eutrope dans La revue des médias.
AI SLOP
Google is redesigning its search engine — and it’s AI all the way down
David Pierce for The Verge:
Over most of the last decade, Google has been trying to change the way you search. It started as a box where you type keywords; now, it wants to be an all-knowing being that you can query any way you want and get answers back in whatever way is most helpful to you. “You increase the richness, and let people ask the question they naturally would,” [Liz Reid, Google’s newly installed head of Search] says. For Google, that’s the trick to getting even more people to ask even more questions, which makes Google even more money. For users, it could mean a completely new way to interact with the internet: less typing, fewer tabs, and a whole lot more chatting with a search engine.
Loosely linked:
Google Search adds a “web” filter, because it is no longer focused on web results by Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica.
Why AI-generated spam is starting to fill social media by Shannon Bond for NPR.
How AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russian by Fan Wang for BBC.
What I read, listen, and watch…
I’m reading Against Technoableism (2023) by Ashley Shew. Shew argued against the harmful belief that technology has the fix for all disability, which it doesn’t, and should instead fix the ableism in technology.
I’m listening to “The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope” on Conspirituality.
I’m watching Total Trust, a TVO documentary.
Other curious links, including en español et français:
Why members-only clubs are everywhere right now by Emily Sundberg for GQ.
Palestinian life under Israeli occupation—an illustrated guide by Mohammed Hussein and Hanna Duggal for Al Jazeera.
Flood of fake science forces multiple journal closures by Nidhi Subbaraman for WSJ. (Archive link.)
“¡No puedo estar siempre pendiente!”: la tiranía de los grupos de WhatsApp que nos demandan participación por Daniel Alonso Viña en elDiarioAR.
De derechas e izquierdas por Karolina Gilas en Proceso.
Decreto influencer contra la dictadura de las minorías por Galo Abrain en Retina.
Le cou du smartphone par Julien Rousset dans Screenbreak.
Les questions que posent les QR codes pour pouvoir se déplacer pendant les Jeux olympiques par Florian Reynaud dans Le Monde.
« À quelle heure et sur quelle chaîne ? » L’astuce pour sauver les audiences de la presse par Thibaut Schepman dans La revue des médias.