#internetculture — Public Fediverse posts

[Tech Thoughts] The tightrope walk between online safety and draconian laws

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/tech-thoughts-tightrope-walk-online-safety-draconian-laws/

TechCrunch: Judge blocks X rival from using Twitter name, but allows ‘Tweet’ for now. “The story of the Virginia-based startup isn’t really about building something unique; it’s about a company trying to get its hands on abandoned trademarks that X relinquished. Even the homepage for the company clearly states its purpose is to go back and pick up what Elon Musk dropped when he renamed […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Gothamist: TikTok is the new 311: New Yorkers tag Mayor Mamdani on social media for help. “Mamdani is being inundated with online requests for IRL fixes. The videos, which have become a meme on TikTok, show people begging Mamdani to take action on everything from mundane nuisances — like potholes and leaky subway stations — to more existential challenges like finding love. The requests have […]

if you call yourself a golden retriever, people may say sit

https://tacobout.online/2026/09/05/golden-retriever-boyfriend-dating-profile-archetype/

CNBC: South Korea’s AI rally is reshaping romance, reality shows and academic preferences. “South Korea’s AI stock rally is rapidly transforming different corners of the country’s society ranging all the way from romance to academics. In Korea’s dating scene, professionals such as physicians, lawyers and judges, have traditionally been the most sought-after. Now the preferences are […]

I sometimes think that some executive came up with the idea of getting perfectly reasonable people to behave like imbeciles as a wager — and then everyone forgot to remove the requirement.

#YouTube #Clickbait #YouTubeCreators #ContentCreators #CreatorEconomy #SocialMedia #DigitalMedia #OnlineContent #MediaCriticism #InternetCulture #YouTubeThumbnails #ContentMarketing #Humour #Satire #TTMO

Roblox to face external audits to prove it's safe for Australian children

Australia's eSafety Commissioner will be able to take the gaming platform to court if it finds Roblox is not honouring its commitments to keep Australian children safe.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-20/roblox-esafety-court-enforceable-undertaking/107056294

#ConsumerProtection #ChildCare #Children #InformationandCommunication #InternetCulture #LawCrimeandJustice

New York Times: After 31 Years, a Quirky Gay Gossip Website Shuts Down. This link goes to a gift article. “At around 5 p.m. on July 30, one day ahead of schedule, the DataLounge, a long-running online forum that became a gathering spot for (mostly) gay men, went dark. Just like that, tens of millions of posts spanning more than three decades simply disappeared.”

The peculiar way Aerosmith broke the internet in 1994

Credit: Far Out / Aerosmith Thu 13 August 2026 1:00, UK It’s September 9th, 2014, and you open…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #1990s #1994 #Aerosmith #Entertainment #HardRock #InternetCulture #Musicindustry #MusicStreaming #Rockmusic #u2
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/811936/

The peculiar way Aerosmith broke the internet in 1994

Credit: Far Out / Aerosmith Thu 13 August 2026 1:00, UK It’s September 9th, 2014, and you open…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #1990s #1994 #Aerosmith #Entertainment #HardRock #InternetCulture #Musicindustry #MusicStreaming #Rockmusic #u2
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/811936/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/1145498/ The peculiar way Aerosmith broke the internet in 1994 #1990s #1994 #Aerosmith #Entertainment #HardRock #InternetCulture #music #MusicIndustry #MusicStreaming #RockMusic #U2 #UK #UnitedKingdom

The peculiar way Aerosmith broke the internet in 1994

Credit: Far Out / Aerosmith Thu 13 August 2026 1:00, UK It’s September 9th, 2014, and you open…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #1990s #1994 #Aerosmith #Entertainment #Hardrock #InternetCulture #Musicindustry #MusicStreaming #RockMusic #U2 #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/736219/

Associated Press: As AI grips world, the thrill of collecting vintage computers is growing. “While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones. Where others see junk, people like [Josh] Dersch see […]

Associated Press: As AI grips world, the thrill of collecting vintage computers is growing. “While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones. Where others see junk, people like [Josh] Dersch see […]

Associated Press: As AI grips world, the thrill of collecting vintage computers is growing. “While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones. Where others see junk, people like [Josh] Dersch see […]

Associated Press: As AI grips world, the thrill of collecting vintage computers is growing. “While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones. Where others see junk, people like [Josh] Dersch see […]

Associated Press: As AI grips world, the thrill of collecting vintage computers is growing. “While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones. Where others see junk, people like [Josh] Dersch see […]

The Backrooms Phenomenon: How an Internet Concept Became a Digital Tourism Trend

📰 Original title: Inside the Backrooms: The internet’s creepiest place is becoming a tourist attraction

🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️

View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/the-backrooms-phenomenon-how-an-internet-concept-became-a-digital-tourism-trend.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#tourism #digitaltourism #internetculture #...

Doc Pop: Chuck Tingle at the Internet Archive in SF. “Chuck writes erotica, horror, and comedy books with titles like Space Raptor Butt Invasion and Pounded in the Butt by My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly but in Reality Is Just a Natural Part of the Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides. I haven’t read any of his books yet, but I can’t help loving […]

Meta faces Tennessee trial over allegations Instagram was designed to be addictive

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/meta-tennessee-trial-allegations-instagram-designed-addictive/

Trump Media pitched $100,000 monthly fee for fastest feed of US president’s posts — sources

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/trump-media-monthly-fee-pitch-posts/

404 Media: How I Bought a Private Jet By Selling $10 Subscriptions to 404 Media. “The extremely obvious truth (which is barely even veiled) is that at least most of these hustlebros are faking it. They hope to make money selling their courses. The scheme is not the AI babe or the drop shipping, it’s the course, the community, the fantasy. They’re LARPing, or LARPmaxxing, if you will. In […]

TechCrunch: The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring. “Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history.”

Gizmodo: Snap’s AR Glasses Aren’t Even Out Yet, and They’re Already Getting Roasted to Death . “… the only thing most people can think about is how they look on your face—or more specifically, how ridiculous they look on your face. On social media, people have wasted absolutely zero time skewering Snap’s Specs for being bulky and generally dorky-looking, and Snap’s CEO Evan […]

The Viral Story of a “SIM-less Phone” Inventor—and Why It Doesn’t Quite Add Up

Dear Cherubs, every few months the internet discovers a “genius ignored by the world” story and runs with it. This time, it’s a young man from Namibia, often named Simon (or Simo) Petrus, said to have invented a SIM-less phone—and then been overlooked.

It’s a compelling narrative. It’s also… a bit shaky.

THE VIRAL CLAIM
The story, widely shared across blogs and social media, claims that Petrus built a phone capable of making calls without a SIM card by using radio frequencies directly. According to these reports, he demonstrated the device locally but failed to receive global recognition or support.

If true, it would be a breakthrough. SIM cards, after all, are part of how mobile networks authenticate users. Removing them isn’t impossible—modern phones already use eSIM technology—but bypassing telecom infrastructure entirely is another matter.

And that’s where the story starts to wobble.

There is no widely verified coverage from major outlets like BBC News or The Guardian confirming a working, SIM-free phone that can operate globally outside existing networks. The claim tends to circulate in secondary blogs and reposted articles, often without technical detail or independent verification. In short, it’s reported—but not confirmed.

TECH REALITY CHECK
Let’s be clear: making calls without a physical SIM card is already a thing. eSIM technology, used in devices from companies like Apple and Google, allows phones to connect to networks digitally. No plastic chip required.

But that still relies on telecom providers.

A truly SIM-less phone that independently connects anywhere would require either a new global communication network or the ability to tap into existing frequencies without infrastructure. Both scenarios are, politely speaking, ambitious.

According to general telecom principles outlined by organizations like the International Telecommunication Union, mobile communication depends on coordinated spectrum use, infrastructure, and authentication systems. You don’t just “skip” that with a clever circuit and a good idea.

So what’s more plausible? Either the invention has been misunderstood, exaggerated, or exists at a prototype level that hasn’t been validated.

None of this means Petrus didn’t build something interesting. Many young inventors create impressive prototypes that don’t scale or get documented properly. But “ignored genius who solved global telecom” is a much bigger claim than the evidence supports.

WHY THE STORY SPREADS
Stories like this thrive because they hit a familiar nerve: the overlooked innovator, the system that fails talent, the idea that brilliance can come from anywhere and be dismissed.

And to be fair, that part is true—sometimes.

As noted by thisclaimer.com in discussions around viral tech claims and overlooked innovators, the internet tends to amplify narratives that feel emotionally satisfying, even when the facts are thin. It’s less about accuracy and more about the story we want to believe.

There’s also a geopolitical angle. A young African inventor being ignored by the global tech industry fits a broader conversation about inequality and access. That doesn’t make this specific claim true, but it does explain why it resonates.

So where does that leave us?

With a story that’s intriguing, possibly rooted in a real person and project, but inflated into something much bigger than the available evidence supports.

Hot take: the real issue isn’t that the world ignored a revolutionary phone—it’s that we’re very quick to believe we did.

Sources list:
International Telecommunication Union — https://www.itu.int
Medium (reported story on Simon Petrus) — https://medium.com/@projectnightfall/a-namibian-inventer-who-created-a-simless-phone-that-can-make-calls-anywhere-in-the-world-66425fddde4f
thisclaimer.com — https://thisclaimer.com

Billboard: The Grateful Dead Launches Play Dead Streaming Platform: ‘We Want to Melt Your Faces’. “On Thursday (April 16), the live-music streaming platform nugs — home to archival recordings by artists including Bruce Springsteen, Phish and Pearl Jam — launches Play Dead, a new app dedicated to the high-resolution presentation of the Grateful Dead’s sprawling vault.”

Rest of World: Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood’s AI push. “As studios, production companies, and streaming platforms increasingly turn to AI for voice-overs and to dub English-language content into local languages, more than 2 million full-time and part-time voice actors worldwide stand to lose their livelihood and the rights to their voice.”

Ars Technica: Musk loves Grok’s “roasts.” Swiss official sues in attempt to neuter them.. “Last month, Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter filed a criminal complaint over an offensive Grok post generated by an X user that requested that the chatbot ‘roast’ the government official.”

What’s On Netflix: Stranger Things Radio Station ‘WSQK: The Squawk’ Archived by Fan After Going Offline . “Missed out on the live broadcast from Hawkins? A dedicated fan has archived the entire run of the Stranger Things Season 5 promotional radio station, WSQK, ensuring the 80s tunes and some hidden lore updates live on.”

Tubefilter: Streaming viewers have clear preferences: They want to watch older shows for free. “Since 2020, the shows that have captured the most U.S. streaming watch time — and the most placements in Nielsen’s associated top-ten rankings — are familiar favorites from network and cable TV.”

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/

“Each of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components.” — Umberto Eco

2025 feels like an Eco novel: Normal persons everywhere.

Meet Schmalk’s patron saint — the man, the myth, the legend.

#Schmalk #UmbertoEco #Culture #Philosophy #MediaCritique #Postmodernism #InternetCulture #CulturalTheory

Gizmodo: HBO Max’s ‘Looney Tunes’ Purge Has Found a Sanctuary in Tubi. “Looney Tunes‘ search for a streaming home has reached a happy ending—and some consolation after being prominently featured on HBO Max initially and then being wiped from the platform. The series has settled on Tubi, where fans can now find over 700 episodes.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/16/gizmodo-hbo-maxs-looney-tunes-purge-has-found-a-sanctuary-in-tubi/

Gizmodo: HBO Max’s ‘Looney Tunes’ Purge Has Found a Sanctuary in Tubi. “Looney Tunes‘ search for a streaming home has reached a happy ending—and some consolation after being prominently featured on HBO Max initially and then being wiped from the platform. The series has settled on Tubi, where fans can now find over 700 episodes.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/16/gizmodo-hbo-maxs-looney-tunes-purge-has-found-a-sanctuary-in-tubi/

Mashable: AI-generated animals in fake surveillance videos are fooling the internet. “You might’ve seen a recent viral video featuring bunnies jumping on a trampoline, seemingly captured via a home surveillance camera. It’s adorable. And fake. Completely and totally fabricated via artificial intelligence.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/04/mashable-ai-generated-animals-in-fake-surveillance-videos-are-fooling-the-internet/

So, personally, I think the problem started when parents started using television sets as babysitters. And yeah. I had a TV (black and white) in my room at probably too young an age, and a landline when I was 16. Nowadays, I use a computer when I want to go online, and only use my smartphone for important calls/texts, and identifying birds and plants. I don't understand folks who are staring at their phones 24/7, and ignoring the world around them. It's been going on for a while now...

When Kids Are Addicted to Their Phones, Who is to Blame?

By Kathryn Jezer-Morton
Mar. 30, 2024

Excerpt: "While reading #JonathanHaidt’s recent long, evidence-filled manifesto in The Atlantic, 'End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,' I began to think about how this line of thinking has become costly to ignore. (Haidt’s book on which the article is based, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, came out on March 26.) He argues that indicators of childhood well-being in developed nations began precipitously decreasing at exactly the same time that smartphones became widely available. He argues, thoroughly, that these falling indicators can’t be linked to any one nation’s problem — instead, it’s the common denominator we all share. It’s not America and its guns. It’s not South Korea and its pressure on young people to test into professions. It’s everywhere, and it’s the phones.

"There is nuance to Haidt’s evidence, even though it is overwhelmingly making a simple, unambiguous argument. He identifies two entwined causes of the decline in young people’s mental health and well-being: parents’ increased protectiveness of their children and children’s increased access to smartphones. It’s not the fault of video games or even social media per se. (Millennials came of age with video games with no measurable harm done, and younger millennials came of age with social media in the desktop era — no lasting scars but for the embarrassing Facebook pics from 2007.) The problem is in the mobility of the technology. It’s the affordances of privacy and portability, and the access to these affordances, that parents have given their children.

"Ultimately, what Haidt is implying, with the utmost tact, is that we parents need to start acting differently. Our kids’ reliance on mobile devices to pass the time starts long before high school, and it coalesces into an unshakeable habit under our watch — or, rather, while our gaze is averted and we’re looking at our phones. No legislation, no industry-oversight panel, is going to help us. Apple’s and Google’s executives know enough to withhold mobile devices from their kids, but they’re not going to stop selling them to ours.

"What Haidt doesn’t say is that parents can’t change their kids’ relationships with their phones and tablets without also addressing their own. Criticizing parents is very treacherous for any public figure, so it’s understandable that Haidt would avoid doing so.

"People with very strong opinions about parenting are usually pushing a skewed ideological agenda and are best ignored. A 'screen-free childhood'? Sounds precious. No thanks! Haidt may be an over-50 white guy, but he is not making an ideological argument in this book. His suggestions are realistic, and his argument is not shrill. We’re beyond moral panic. I know many children who are absolutely addicted to their mobile devices, whether we’re talking about a Nintendo Switch, a phone, or an iPad. This circumstance is normal now — so normal, in fact, that you’d be rude and tasteless to remark on it. Our social norms have been very quickly reshaped around this behavior. Kids who aren’t on iPads at the restaurant are the ones who get remarked on, not those who are.

"It’s a lot like any other kind of addiction: We’ve learned to tread very lightly around it, to explain it away. But unlike adults who live with addiction, children are not responsible for themselves. They can reasonably expect their parents to take responsibility for them, at least until high school. (At which point even Haidt says they get to have phones, so all bets are off!)

"The impossible condition of parenting is part of what has gotten us here. Parents work too much, and there is no affordable care infrastructure anywhere. It is inevitable for many parents to be working while trying to care for young children. But we do a lot more on our phones than work. It’s where we socialize and stay in touch, and the inflated amount of time we spend texting alone is a monopolizing factor. Is it possible that we have reached peak texting? Would it be possible for us to text less? I am nauseated at the thought of texting more — I truly hope we’ve hit our limit, but who am I kidding? We are at least as addicted to our phones as our kids are; we need them in order to relax. And since we don’t feel safe letting our kids wander around the neighborhood freely while we scroll in peace, we keep them inside with us, scrolling.

"It’s not just the parents who can’t afford child care whose children are addicted to their phones by age 10. Many parents of means and privilege rely on phones to keep their kids 'happy' to a degree that is — and here I’m going to break the No. 1 rule of parenting writing and shame people — totally gratuitous and lazy. I would be very interested to read a study of parents explaining why they have their children eat dinner in front of an iPad: For many people it’s exhaustion at the end of a long day, but for others it’s an unwillingness to deal with the challenging task of teaching your kids how to act. People tether their children to iPads so as to streamline and optimize their own lives, to avoid meltdowns and chaos. Everyone can be engaged in a semblance of respectable pantomimed productivity through their individual screens, and peace can reign. No messes, no fighting, no whining."

Full article:
https://www.thecut.com/article/children-teen-smartphone-addiction-what-to-do.html

#Internet #InternetCulture #MentalHealth #MentalWellbeing #Teenagers #Parenting #MeaningfulConnections #TechAddiction
#SmartPhones are #DumbingUsDown
#MoreGreenTimeLessScreenTime

The teen '#Luddites' rethinking how they use tech ahead of #Australia's under 16's #SocialMediaBan

By Lucia Stein and Fiona Pepper for Brain Rot

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-09/luddites-phone-free-australia-teen-social-media-ban/105343034

#TheLudditeClub #LudditeClub #Internet #InternetCulture #MentalHealth #MentalWellbeing #Teenagers #Parenting #Luddites #JoinTheLudditeClub #MeaningfulConnections #ReadBooks #CreateArt #WriteBadPoetry #BePresent #TechAddiction
#SmartPhones are #DumbingUsDown
#MoreGreenTimeLessScreenTime

Tubefilter: The #SkinnyTok trend is drawing scrutiny from E.U. regulators. “On TikTok, there are thousands of videos that offer advice for viewers who want to slim down. That archive raises some complex moral questions, and regulators in the European Union are looking for answers. The video archive in question is collected under the hashtag #SkinnyTok, which applies to videos that discuss […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/25/tubefilter-the-skinnytok-trend-is-drawing-scrutiny-from-e-u-regulators/

Mashable: Fitness influencer’s morning routine goes viral for all the wrong reasons. “We regret to inform you that the hustle bros are at it again — this time, they’ve brought mouth tape and banana peels. Over the weekend, the internet was captivated (read: deeply confused) by a resurfaced video from fitness influencer Ashton Hall, whose morning routine might be the most unhinged one to […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/31/mashable-fitness-influencers-morning-routine-goes-viral-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/

NBC News: From Brat to ‘brain rot’: 2024’s biggest memes and moments. “Slop, rap beef, brain rot and, yes, ‘hawk tuah’ — what a year it’s been on the internet. The colloquial definition of memes has expanded to include any type of viral internet phenomenon, including slang terms like “rizz” or “skibidi,” that comes alive on social media, according to Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2024/12/23/from-brat-to-brain-rot-2024s-biggest-memes-and-moments-nbc-news/

Twitter is exploring the use of Facebook-style emoji reactions - If you’re old enough to remember the outrage that followed Twitter’s decision to replace stars with ... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/S0sULGlgMqo/ #internetculture #emojireactions #socialsoftware #socialmedia #likebutton #twitter #social #hearts #emoji #apps