Catherine Prasifka

Catherine Prasifka: Online debate has changed how we engage with politics, and it’s not good Watching the presidential debate on Monday night, I could not escape the creeping feeling that it is all a bit pointless.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: ‘The Traitors’ brought us together to enjoy and laugh at our shared Irishness In the age of streaming, it is rare to sit down with friends and find you are all watching the same thing.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: When online words have such immense consequences, influencers must own what they say Thirty years ago, if you had 10,000 followers you would have been a successful cult leader. Today, 10,000 followers will not even qualify you to be an influencer – there will be no brand deals or free...

This week, I wrote about how nothing you post online is apolitical, once you have a following.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Rough Drafts is back!

Whether you’re experienced or just getting started, this is an open mic for writers of all levels, genres, and interests. Come share your latest work, meet fellow writers, and get inspired!

Let us know if you can come by emailing RoughDraftsRSVP@gmail.com.

Catherine Prasifka: Don’t buy into the tech bros’ claims that AI can replace creativity, all it feeds us is slop C AO offer day is not easy. The queasy anticipation, the fear, the unshakeable feeling that whatever offer you get will set you on an irreversible collision course with your future. The hope that all ...

This week I wrote about the importance of so called ‘soft skills’, and why AI will not and cannot replace them. Don’t let tech bros fool you into thinking humanities degrees are useless!

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Donald Trump’s ‘gotcha politics’ made him king – now Gavin Newsom is after his crown A political shift is happening on X. Recently, your feed may have been dominated by AI-generated photos of California governor Gavin Newsom. He might have been riding a dinosaur and waving the America...

This week I wrote about whatever the hell is going on with Gavin Newsom’s social media presence, and what that means for the democrats.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: From ‘RushTok’ to Sydney Sweeney – why mindless scrolling is a threat to feminism Every August, TikTok gets taken over by “RushTok” – the term for content created by, and centring on, hopeful new recruits for American college sororities. The name comes from “rush week”, the period ...

This week I wrote about RushTok, Sydney Sweeney, and ‘tradwife’ being added to the dictionary.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: The robots are here, and there’s a creeping sense the tech bros have created a world to which we never consented We may already have the word of the year, if not the decade: clanker. Originating from the Star Wars universe, it has become a catch-all term used to refer to robots and AI. Any technology can be refe...

This week I wrote about the term ‘clanker’ that’s been popping up online more and more lately. It’s a kind of imagined slur against robots, and it doesn’t speak very highly of our hopes for what the future will bring.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Silence is golden, but finding time to enjoy it without distractions is almost impossible We are all adept multi- taskers: listening to music while we walk, watching a show while we cook, messaging a friend while we are reading a book. With phones, laptops and televisions all within easy r...

This week I wrote about the importance of embracing silence:

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Unskippable ads are just the latest social media ruse designed to undermine EU regulation Instagram users may have noticed a change in their app experience over the last week: strange pop-ups that you cannot skip, vague regulatory language dressed up in preppy social media speak, blue hype...

This week I wrote about the new unskippable ads introduced by meta, the lengths they are going to to avoid regulation, and how we as users are paying the price (while also being the thing that generates revenue).

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: We’re terrified of being labelled ‘cringe’, but I’d rather embrace it than live in fear Forgetting the name of someone you just met at a party – that’s cringe. Referencing a meme that’s gone stale? That’s cringe. The video of all the celebrities singing Imagine during the pandemic? Unima...

This week I wrote about what it’s like growing up in a cringe culture:

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

This Is How You Remember It has now been translated into Portuguese!! So excited to get my hands on a copy. Translation is such a fine art: a translator has to breakdown and completely remake something in a new language. I’m so excited for my little book to reach more readers.

Just gonna leave this here😎

thank you so much @prasifcat.bsky.social for your kind words...

#Athylib info👇
www.kildarecoco.ie/library/Libr...

Catherine Prasifka is the bestselling Irish writer of two novels, None of This Is Serious & This Is How You Remember It. She was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book awards in 2022. She holds a BA in English literature from Trinity College Dublin, an MLitt in fantasy literature

Catherine Prasifka: Elon Musk gives us his sci-fi villain’s vision of the future — a chatbot that takes off its lingerie Elon Musk is a science-fiction fan who refuses to learn anything from classic works of science fiction.

I have a piece in the Sunday Independent today about Elon Musk’s new ‘companion’ AI chat bots.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Micro studios may be a safe investment, but they are another slap in the face for young people The Government continues to struggle to meet its housing targets, and it is all out of ideas. Except for one: what if apartments were smaller? What if they pared back regulation and allowed developers...

This week I wrote about why, shockingly, tiny apartments won’t solve the housing crisis.

The issue isn’t the size, it’s that any savings will line the pockets of developers while the quality of the apartment stock is eroded. And they wont be cheap.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Fate of Tiny Chef is a salutary tale about how short life is in attention economy It is likely that you have never heard of Tiny Chef, the stop-motion character who starred in an Emmy-winning Nick Jr show. And if you have heard of him, it’s probably because you saw his heartbreakin...

This week I wrote about Tiny Chef and the attention economy. Mainly, I wrote about Tiny Chef.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: Chatbots trawled our data, now they’re mining our deepest feelings Over the last 15 years, we have seen technology replace humans in countless ways. Supermarket cashiers and customer service operators have been replaced by technology. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa ...

This week I wrote about people falling in love with chatbots and what the hyper-individualised world of the internet has done to our conception of love and relationships.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: J1 student summer no longer seems sweet with threat of social media surveillance Foreign students applying for visas to study in the US are now required to list “all social media user names or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years” on their application ...

This week I wrote about why social media vetting for USA visa applications is a big privacy breach, and why it can’t be waved away with ‘if you haha nothing to hide you have nothing to fear’.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

The Newspaper Panel Joining Dearbhail to dissect the Sunday papers are Donnacha Ó Beacháin, Professor of Politics at the school of Law and Government, DCU, Kate English, Chief Economist for Deloitte, Philip Ryan, Head of...

Today I appeared on the Brendan O’Connor show as part of the Newspaper Panel. I even managed to sneak in something about TikTok tarot card readers. You can listen back now!

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

I can't believe people turned up.

Again.

And on a swelteringly hot day too...

Writehawks 4 at @booksupstairs.bsky.social was from the top drawer with fine choices (in order in the first picture from the top down) from @urchinette.bsky.social, @mrkocnnll.bsky.social, and @prasifcat.bsky.social.

Catherine Prasifka: The internet is dead, and we’re haunted by the ghosts of bots Have you ever seen something online that gave you an uncanny, eerie feeling, as though something you cannot pinpoint was amiss? Maybe it was an obviously AI-generated image that no one in the comments...

This week I wrote about the dead internet theory, and how the social internet has very quickly become the internet of siloed feeds and bots posing as real people - and why that matters.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Writehawks poster

This is on Thursday, and my last gig until after the Summer.

@urchinette.bsky.social @mrkocnnll.bsky.social and
@prasifcat.bsky.social

Tickets went in a couple of days but as there are frequently cancellations, @booksupstairs.bsky.social keep a wait list:

booksupstairs.ie/all-events/w...

Catherine Prasifka: Feminism has gone backwards, and being a woman on the internet in today’s world is proof of this This may be the worst time in history to be a young woman on the internet. The internet of the 2010s was not a good place for women: there was body shaming, slut shaming, objectification and fetishisa...

This week I wrote about how the language of feminism has been eroded after the 2010s, leaving us with no real way to critique misogyny, and no way to counter the anger of young men. There’s a dichotomy of empowerment.

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Catherine Prasifka: If I told you the latest online threat to children was a ballerina with a cappuccino as a head, you might laugh – but it’s serious Spend any time talking to a child with a smartphone and you will hear about “Italian brainrot”, the latest meme sweeping social media. If you can’t even begin to imagine what that means, you’re part o...

m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

🔥 WRITEHAWKS at Books Upstairs 🔥 Thurs 19 June @rickoshea.bsky.social with another wonderful panel of writers: @urchinette.bsky.social @mrkocnnll.bsky.social
& @prasifcat.bsky.social to wax lyrical about some of their favourite books, booking essential : booksupstairs.ie/all-events/writehawks4/

WRITEHAWKS at Books Upstairs | Books Upstairs The Rick O’Shea Book Club presents: WRITEHAWKS at Books Upstairs With Anna Carey, Mark O’Connell and Catherine Prasifka Join broadcaster and columnist, Rick O’ Shea, as he speaks to writers about the ...

Writehawks 4!!!!!!

I'll be talking to @urchinette.bsky.social, @mrkocnnll.bsky.social, and @prasifcat.bsky.social at @booksupstairs.bsky.social about books they love.

Tickets are free but usually go in a flash.

Go!!!!!

booksupstairs.ie/all-events/w...

This Is How You Remember It: Catherine Prasifka in conversation Join us for an evening with Catherine Prasifka and her latest novel about the danger and potency of a life lived online

🎟️: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/this-is-ho...

We're looking forward to our event with @prasifcat.bsky.social next Tuesday, discussing her novel that perfectly captures the feeling of growing up online! Tickets via link below or by popping into the shop to pick up a copy of the book!