Why Tech Companies Don’t Understand Online Abuse
[Content note: online harassment and threats] I’ve been hearing from several people, such as @thetrudz and Oolon, that Twitter is now making tweets with links to other tweets show up in the mentions of...
View ArticleThe Perils of Facebook as a Hiring Tool
My new post at the Daily Dot is about Five Labs, an app that analyzes your personality based on your Facebook profile. Some employers already try to use Big Five personality tests to assess prospective...
View ArticleAre Anti-Rape Devices the Best We Can Do?
[Content note: sexual assault] Four students at North Carolina State University have developed a nail polish that can detect the presence of certain drugs used to facilitate sexual assault and change...
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#AlterConf Sessions Are Awesome and You Should Go
This weekend I attended something called AlterConf, which I hadn’t even heard about until a friend mentioned it, but was very glad I did. AlterConf is basically a series of local events that feature...
View ArticleWhy Subtle Sexism in Tech Matters
[Content note: sexual harassment, bullying] I wrote a Daily Dot piece about tech sexism. When we think of a “hostile workplace environment,” we often think of the blatant, obvious things—like...
View ArticleUber Can’t Fix Rape Culture
I wrote a Daily Dot piece about Uber, rape culture, and what the service can and can’t do to prevent sexual assault. On Wednesday, ubiquitous ridesharing app Uber announced a partnership with UN Women,...
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How to Motivate Yourself To Read Books
I read a lot. A lot of my friends have recently been asking for advice about reading. Specifically, they say that they really value reading (books, generally) and have always seen themselves as people...
View ArticleThe Danger of Believing That People Are “Genuinely Good”
Here’s what I was thinking as I watched Twitter thoroughly critique Peeple, a new app that promises to let people “rate” other people like restaurants on Yelp without any option to opt-out: If only all...
View ArticleIn Praise of Facebook’s New ‘Like’ Button
At the Daily Dot, I wrote about Facebook Reactions. When rumors spread online last month that Facebook was going to add a “Dislike” button, the Internet reacted with a great deal of, well, dislike....
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