Nobody Cares If Music Is Real Anymore
“Rubber burns, the map fades away / Chasing the ghosts of yesterday.” Sure, fine.
A few of my favorites from my coverage of the tech industry and tech culture.
Writing
I write both general-readership magazine stories (mostly The Atlantic, where I am a contributing writer), and scholarly work in media studies, game studies, computer science, and design.
This page includes my latest stories, then favorites by category: technology, video games, politics, education, design & architecture, travel & transportation, food & beverage, a grab-bag of miscellany, and selected scholarly papers.
For other magazine/popular venues—or all my academic work—consult my CV.
Recent Writing at The Atlantic
👩🏻💻 📱 Technology
Amazon Returns Have Gone to Hell
What happened?
The Age of Social Media Is Ending
It never should have begun.
People Aren't Meant to Talk This Much
Breaking up social-media companies is one way to fix them. Shutting their users up is a better one.
The Metaverse Is Bad
It is not a world in a headset but a fantasy of power.
What Did People Do Before Smartphones?
No one can remember.
You Should Worry About the Data Retailers Collect About You
But probably not for the reasons you think.
Welcome to the Age of Privacy Nihilism
Google and Facebook are easy scapegoats, but companies have been collecting, selling, and reusing your personal data for decades, and now that the public has finally noticed, it’s too late. The personal-data privacy war is long over, and you lost.
🎮 👾 Video Games
A few of my favorites from my coverage of video gaming. (I've also written many books about video games.)
Video Games Are Better Without Characters
The real legacy of SimCity is its attempt—and failure—to make complex systems the protagonists instead of people.
Television Is Better Without Stories
Film, television, and literature all tell them better. So why are games still obsessed with narrative?
Video Games Are Better Without Gameplay
Untitled Goose Game is fun. The problem is, all games are also work.
Television Is Better Without Video Games
HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us offers a definitive case for games’ narrative impoverishment.
I Figured Out Wordle's Secret
It took me four guesses.
The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
In the midst of a pandemic, it’s delightful to imagine doing whatever you like without worrying about making a living.
The Tragedy of Pokémon Go
What it takes for good ideas to attract money.
HQ Trivia Is a Harbinger of Dystopia
What do you get from a live game-show app? a. Fun b. Money c. Social collapse
🏛️ 🗳️ Politics
A few of my favorites from my coverage of the politics of technology.
American Panopticon
The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next. (with Charlie Warzel)
DOGE Has ‘God Mode’ Access to Government Data
The president’s special commission now has an unprecedented ability to view and manipulate information at many federal agencies. (with Charlie Warzel and Matteo Wong)
The Government's Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified
Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk’s incursion into the U.S. government could be. (with Charlie Warzel)
Cryptocurrency Might be a Path to Authoritarianism
Extreme libertarians built blockchain to decentralize government and corporate power. It could consolidate their control instead.
📚 🎓 Education
A few of my favorites from my coverage of higher education.
Why Students Are Obsessed With ‘Points Taken Off’
Students and professors are in a drawn-out battle over grade inflation. It may never end.
Universities Have a Computer-Science Problem
The case for teaching coders to speak French
The End of College Life
If they persist, Donald Trump’s attacks on universities will destroy a cornerstone of American life.
A New Kind of Crisis for American Universities
The ivory tower has been breached.
How to Marry Into Academia
When you get a job as a professor, your partner may get one too.
The First Year of AI College Ends in Ruin
There’s an arms race on campus, and professors are losing.
The Plagiarism War Has Begun
Claudine Gay was taken down by a politically motivated investigation. Would the same approach work for any academic?
America Will Sacrifice Anything for the College Experience
The pandemic has revealed that higher education was never about education.
🏘️ 🏗️ Design and Architecture
A few of my favorites from my coverage of domestic life, design, architecture, and the built environment.
America Built an Actually Good Airport
LaGuardia is reborn, and it has a message for the nation.
Revenge of the Suburbs
Suburbia was never as bad as anyone said it was. Now it’s looking even better.
The Curse of an Open Floor Plan
A flowing, connected interior—once a fringe experiment of American architectural modernism—has become ubiquitous, and beloved. But it promises a liberation from housework that remains a fantasy.
Technology Sabotaged Public Safety
Without us even noticing.
Houston's Flood Is a Design Problem
It’s not because the water comes in. It’s because it is forced to leave again.
You're Thinking About Home Heating Wrong
Getting a heat pump is one of the easiest ways for homeowners to fight climate change.
The Wildly Appealing, Totally Doomed Future of Work
WeWork was supposed to reinvent office life. Unfortunately, it did.
When Malls Saved the Suburbs From Despair
Like it or not, the middle class became global citizens through consumerism—and they did so at the mall.
✈️ 🚗 Travel and Transportation
A few of my favorites from my coverage of aviation, travel, and transportation.
The End of the Manual Transmission
Stick shifts are dying. When they go, something bigger than driving will be lost.
The Carry-On-Baggage Bubble Is About to Pop
Airplanes aren’t made for this much luggage.
Why Is Airplane Wi-Fi Still So Bad?
The service has been stuck in a limbo of mediocrity for two decades.
Do Navigation Apps Think We’re Stupid?
Why Apple and Google can’t stop map-splaining to their users
The Cute Robot That Follows You Around the City
Piaggio, the Italian company that makes Vespa scooters, is building cargo droids for city pedestrians.
The Death of the Minivan
It was a perfect vehicle.
The E-bike is a Monstrosity
Neither bicycle nor motorbike, the two-wheeler’s future demands an identity of its own.
How Driverless Cars Will Change the Feel of Cities
Autonomous vehicles promise safety and efficiency. But nobody knows what it will be like to live with them.
🍔 🥤 Food and Beverage
A few of my favorites from my coverage of food, drink, and other comestibles.
The Truth About Slushies Must Come Out
Every slushie is different. Every slushie is the same.
All Soda Is Lemon-Lime Soda
It's not a flavor; it's a vibe.
J.D. Vance Has a Point About Mountain Dew
The soft drink has long been associated with the joy and despair of white America.
How Starbucks Perfected Autumn
The pumpkin spice latte has defined fall for 20 years.
You Must Respect Candy Corn
Even in paradise, death lurks.
The Supermarket After the Pandemic
The coronavirus will change grocery stores, and probably not for the better.
How Crystal Pepsi Anticipated Silicon Valley
The clear cola’s nostalgic relaunch harkens back to a time when the world’s problems seemed simple.
McRib: Enjoy Your Symptom
How McDonald’s strange, seasonal sandwich explains the rest of its menu
🎁 🎉 Grab Bag
A few of my favorites from topics that don't fit into other categories.
Feeling Herd
What I learned from a steer named Chico
Sandra Boynton’s Captivating Universe
Her picture books have sold 75 million copies in the past four decades. What’s the secret to her far-reaching appeal?
Shaka, When the Walls Fell
In one fascinating episode, Star Trek: The Next Generation traced the limits of human communication as we know it—and suggested a new, truer way of talking about the universe
A Bomb in the Desert
Seventy-five years ago, America set off the world’s first nuclear explosion.
🧐 💭 Scholarly Work
A few relevant papers from my scholarly work, which might be hard to find elsewhere. (For more of my academic work, see my books or consult my CV)
Object-Oriented Ontology as a Design Philosophy
2018
In The Secret Life of Buildings, eds Michael Benedikt and Kory Bieg
Why Gamification Is Bullshit
2014
In The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications, eds Steffen P. Wanz and Sebastian Deterding
Video Games Go to Washington: The Story Behind The Howard Dean for Iowa Game
2008
Futures for Casual Multiplayer Experience
Asynchronous Multiplay
2004
Futures for Casual Multiplayer Experience