TECHNOLOGY 

The world is changing in dramatic ways. Due in large part to how we’ve increasingly come to allow technology to take more of an intimate place in our lives, these changes can either be exciting or sometimes pretty unsettling. Either way the breakneck pace of technological advancement is not easy to keep track of but still very important to document. Below is a small sampling of my technology related writing.

Social media newsfeeds have hijacked your attention—here’s how to reclaim it

Last week, during another sad desk lunch, I found myself mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed and suddenly feeling boxed-in by the same content I’ve seen over and over again. I don’t know when it happened but day-old memes from Twitter, irrelevant quiz results, and the same one or two major stories that get shared by everyone, seemed to have permanently taken over my entire newsfeed. It wasn’t always this way.

Why IMDB's Message Board Shut Down Is Misguided

Now and then there are shortsighted decisions companies make that seem innocuous internally, but when announced, end up causing a massive ripple effect that can turn their customers away for good. On Friday, the Internet Movie Database’s (IMDB) statement on the decision to shut down their message boards might join Netflix’s “Qwikster”, Starbucks’s “Race Together” cups, and Microsoft’s “AI Twitter Bot” as another entrant on an ever growing list of business initiatives that totally misinterpret th

How Sonic Mania Rekindled My Love of Videogames

Despite what gamers feel about Sonic the Hedgehog, there is no denying that the little blue blur is both a videogame and 1990’s icon. For many of today’s older gamers, Sonic was undoubtedly a huge figure from their childhood that solidified their love of videogames. Sadly, today Sonic is more of a joke than revered figure like other older gaming characters such as Mario, Link, or even Donkey Kong. You can thank a steady deluge of subpar and rushed games that’s spanned over the past twenty years

How To Reclaim Your Newsfeed

Social media newsfeeds have hijacked your attention. It’s time to reclaim it. Last week during another sad desk lunch, I found myself mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed and suddenly feeling boxed-in by the same content I’ve seen over and over again. I don’t know when it happened but day-old memes from Twitter, irrelevant quiz results, and the same one or two major stories that get shared by everyone, seemed to have permanently taken over my entire newsfeed.

There Should Be a Pandroa for Video Games

I had a thought the other day that I still can’t believe I’ve vocalized to a friend during a discussion about music: “MTV was great when we were young but it’s totally obsolete” For anyone that grew up in the 90’s this kind of talk is heresy. Many of us and the personalities we carry today were molded by MTV and their charismatic VJs we watched for countless hours after school. Today’s lack of communal music video viewing certainly would suggest that there is an even greater need for a curated

Who Will Create the Next IMDb?

By the time you read this, there’s a good chance IMDb will have closed their famous, or infamous depending on who you ask, message boards. Two weeks ago IMDb announced their intention to close their message boards because of their belief that it no longer provides a “positive and useful experience” for most of its 250 million monthly users.  In the wake of the announcement, many of those users, including myself, aired our beliefs that the move was misguided. Though the outcry spawned petitions

Wars Ignored by Video Games: The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

Wars Ignored by Video Games: The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) Before World War II ravaged Europe, it was the Spanish Civil War where fascist nations first fought alongside a dictator against democracy. Spain’s Civil War began as a conflict between right-wing Nationalists that rejected the newly formed left-wing republican government; but by the time it was over the European continent was on the brink of an ideological battle to assert how governments would rule their nations. Lead by Francisc

World War 1 Isn’t the Only War Ignored by Video games

When it was announced that the next installment of the Battlefield series would be taking place during World War 1, I immediately thought back to 1998. Back then I was in 7th grade and it was in Mr. Maganello’s history class that I first fell in love with world history. The monotony of a prosaic grammar school curriculum didn’t inspire much of my imagination back then. However, it was Mr. Maganello who sparked a flame of intrigue in me that grew into a wildfire that made realize just how large

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Henry David Thoreau

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