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Lead story
We’re a long way from the utopian ideals of the web’s early days, when pioneers like John Perry Barlow and Tim Berners-Lee predicted the internet would fashion a more open, kind and egalitarian world.
Few people today would describe the internet as a place of compassion and cooperation. Instead, most online spaces promote alienation and conflict – in part because they reward clickbait, trolling, cyberbullying and outrage.
In her new book “Attention and Alienation,” sociologist Aarushi Bhandari wonders if the internet is destined to forever be shaped by algorithms, data harvesting and surveillance. “Hate and mental illness fester in this culture because love and healing seem to be incompatible with profits,” she writes.
Reversing course, she argues, will take regular internet users seeing themselves not as passive consumers of content, but as workers offering their insights, creativity and attention to the very companies who market their services as “free” while they scrape user data and design dopamine-driven feedback loops to keep people hooked on their products.
Still, there’s reason to hope. Bhandari sees examples, such as nonprofits like Wikipedia, that offer a different way forward.
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Nick Lehr
Arts + Culture Editor
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Hate and mental illness fester online because love and healing seem to be incompatible with profits.
Ihor Lukianenko/iStock via Getty Images
Aarushi Bhandari, Davidson College
The author of the new book ‘Attention and Alienation’ wonders if the online world can ever become a place where kindness and human flourishing are the prevailing ethos.
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Health + Medicine
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Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, University of North Dakota
After a natural disaster, survivors often suffer from prolonged trauma for years to come, particularly in places where mental health services are few and far between.
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Environment + Energy
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Jeremy Porter, City University of New York
FEMA flood maps are essential tools for identifying flood risks, but they have significant coverage gaps, and politics can get in the way.
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Brian P. McCullough, University of Michigan
Big sports events face a sustainability conundrum: They’re under pressure to grow bigger, but at the same time, their athletes are dealing with increasingly dangerous heat and shorter snow seasons.
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Politics + Society
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Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York; Carol Nackenoff, Swarthmore College
The Supreme Court can still invalidate the newest national injunction and allow the order to go into effect anywhere it is not currently barred from doing so. That would create administrative chaos, the authors write.
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Daniel J. Mallinson, Penn State
The outcome of Pennsylvania’s retention elections in November could change the balance of power in Harrisburg.
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Ethics + Religion
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Jeffers Engelhardt, Amherst College
Music brings spiritual realms into the world of human senses.
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Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University
Mamdanis belong to the Khoja community, who were categorized by the British in the early 19th century as “Hindoo Mussalman” because their traditions spanned both religions.
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Science + Technology
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Keri K. Stephens, The University of Texas at Austin; Hamilton Bean, University of Colorado Denver
As flash floods ravage areas like the Texas Hill Country, research shows that technology alone cannot save lives during flooding emergencies.
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International
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Rafael R. Ioris, University of Denver
US president’s letter to Brazilian counterpart mentioned trade deficit. But don’t be fooled, these tariffs are political rather than economic.
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Economy + Business
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Brandon Prins, University of Tennessee
The first mention of a pirate by name may be in a Greek book from 2,500 years ago. But sea-raiding has been around since the very first boats traversed the world’s waterways.
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