Are you on your phone while watching TV? Good. Why second-screening makes sense and requires no guilt

Do you use your phone while watching TV? Good. Second-screening isn't a crime or a sin. open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

Sure, it's 10/10, but outside of the USA it's actually 10/10!

FEED: “Here is an exciting piece. It looks free.”

ME: (Click)

PIECE: “Not so fast: $1 a month for three months and then an undisclosed amount and no way to ever click your way out of a subscription”

ME: “Now I will *never* subscribe”

FEED: “Made you look!” (makes note in the Book of Algorithm.)

These are the only three exercises I recommend for staying healthy until you are 100. Follow me for more, because tomorrow I will describe 4 different exercises that are the only ones I recommend to stay healthy until 100

“Is it something we did?”

I received another one of these annoying emails from a company I once bought something from. Do they think they can guilt-trip me into buying more stuff? It is so off-putting.

“No, it wasn’t anything you did… until you sent me this message!”

I learn new media effects phenomena from my students. One anecdote is not a theory, but can be a signal worth studying. Yesterday, I learned that social media currently focuses a lot on “micro-imperfections” you didn’t realize you had. Are you sure your elbows look normal? You looked, didn’t ya?!

Pebbling: How sharing memes can get us in touch with our inner penguin Jokes as relationship maintenance

Are you sharing memes, jokes, and reels incessantly? Guess what, so do I. Somebody called it "pebbling," and I am here for it!

open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

Summer’s best find: Parker novels. Richard Stark’s prose is like his main character: mean, fast, no ballast, no emotion.

I am currently conducting an unintentional self-experiment. After an Android update, I moved my social media folder from the second to the opening page of my phone. It is scary how often I automatically swipe to my social media, which I notice each time because the folder is no longer there!

Welcome to another year of "I've done it before, but I don't remember how" on Canvas/Blackboard/Your Institution's Online "Learning" "Environment". Don't worry, they've changed everything over the Summer anyway

Phone spam is the most remarkable thing ever: phone companies enabling or letting or being unable to prevent the total destruction of their own service. Are there other examples like this? Horses delivering the first cars?

Our department is hiring an open-rank professor in media industries. Deadline 8 September. lnkd.in/emRKfibd

Easy media effects prediction: Jason Momoa’s Chief of War will lead to a considerable increase in people interested in and learning Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian language

Is a fire alarm the purest form of communication? The hidden complexity of everyday communication

Communication is hard and every message can be interpreted in more than one way. Or is a fire alarm an exception?

open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

Lee Child's Reacher books are underappreciated wordsmithing works of art. He keeps chipping away at the non-essentials until pretty soon an entire book will consist of three-word sentences:

I am now so old I get carpal tunnel syndrome from simply scrolling down to my birth-year

Having a big argument with a loved one? Ask a dolphin Couples, Conflict, and Communication

Caught in a conflict loop? Communication theory has a suggestion open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

Critics mock Gen Z’s fascination with astrology: how could anyone believe there are only twelve kinds of people? Fair enough. But then why do we treat entire generations as if they each have a single personality type? We don’t even have twelve generational labels for all the people alive today.

For the sake of us Murderbot fans: will somebody please produce “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon“?!

My latest newsletter, about reality, fiction, and perceived realism.
mediatedmessages.substack.com/p/what-a-pop...

What booking a hotel taught me about AI and prompt engineering Why a simple request can confuse both humans and AI

AI often misunderstands us, but so do people...
open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

I sometimes think about leaving social media, but then I see silliness like this, and I can't

I overheard a few of my students talking to each other in class several years ago: "My mom is so weird, she posts pictures of her food on FB. Like an old person." And there I stood, still thinking that was a young person's thing

How did people learn about nu songs before the advent of radio? And are TikTok or Taylor Swift really that different? A thought experiment
mediatedmessages.substack.com/p/what-my-gr...

Sounds familiar. And then it gets baked into the upholstery, meaning that every summer inevitably leads to the release of a new level of horrors

This post made my day, even though I feel deeply for all involved (including the dogs). One of my kids was so sensitive to carsickness for a while that any sound from the backseat would make me slam on the brakes, swerve to the shoulder, and rush out the kid.

If people or institutions say they are “in the Top Seven,” it always means they come seventh, never third or sixth.

We’re hiring at Princeton on AI and society, working with Arvind Narayanan or me depending on fit.

I think current AI developments are all a huge deal but am very unexcited by current state of the AGI and/or AI safety discourse.

Please share as you see fit.

puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

Is AI turning your brain into mush? A primer on Moral Panics

New technology always leads to serious worries. Could be true, could be wrong, just be aware of Moral Panics.
open.substack.com/pub/mediated...

What a Crowded Elevator Can Teach Us About the Power of Nonverbal Communication Interpersonal Distance in Every Day Life

A very pleasant and productive #ICA25 reminded me: the real communication doesn’t always happen in sessions.
It also happens in elevators.

Wrote about that here: open.substack.com/pub/mediated...