technology
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Eulogy for the Love Letter
Paper notes and postcards have all but joined rotary phones and singing telegrams in the history books of communication. Email and text messages might have the advantage of speed (and sometimes playful naughtiness), but neither can compensate for the tangible…
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Paying Attention to the Short Story
The Telegraph’s Sam Baker says that the short story is experiencing a resurgence, both in the United States and Great Britain, thanks to technology. Suddenly, after years out in the cold, the short story finds itself a perfect fit for…
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Call Me, Ishmael
Already all the rage in Japan, the cell phone novel is slowly making its way to the US. The cell phone novel is a tweet-like fiction form: short bursts of serialized prose with chapters usually confined to 200 words or…
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Weekly Geekery
Whisper is an app that lets users make anonymous confessions. It’s brilliant and seems to be here to stay. Or stay as long as these things do. Pretty soon, writing on a laptop will be just another bit of nostalgia.…
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The Rumpus Interview with Astra Taylor
Driven by philosophical thought, Astra Taylor—documentary filmmaker, activist, and writer—looks at the way the Internet has affected social and economic change in her new book, The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age.
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Biography and the Digital Self
After centuries of shuffling papers, biographers must now deal with the sudden digitization of the self, and the behavioral changes that have followed. Over at The Millions, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin considers how email technology has affected biography—and what’s gotten lost in…
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A Box Full of Old Emails
We know many people collect old letters, especially from loved ones who have passed, but what about old emails? What will happen to our electronic footprint after we are gone? And should we care? NPR’s All Things Considered investigates the…
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Fiction in the Digital Age
Serialized fiction is experiencing a resurgence, and we have technology to thank. Back in 2012, The Silent History brought the serialized novel to our iPhones (check out our interview with co-author Kevin Moffett here). And now, there’s Wattpad. The New York Times takes…
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Wired in for Life
…the unplugging movement is the latest incarnation of an ageless effort to escape the everyday, to retreat from the hustle and bustle of life in search of its still core. Phones, computers, and tablets, once seen as a way of…
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My Internet Girlfriend or My Girlfriend, the Internet?
In the New York Times novelist Charles Yu, author of the hilarious, tragic, brain-melting How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, recounts his experience falling in love with technology. A private channel had opened up, a vast network…
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Wear Your Book’s Emotions!
Move over, e-books—there’s a new innovation in reading technology! The folks over at MIT have developed a wearable book that lets the reader experience the character’s emotions while they read. Check it out!
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Second Twitter Fiction Festival Approaches
Last year, we blogged about the first annual Twitter Fiction Festival after it happened. This year, we’re giving you a heads up: if you want to participate in this year’s festival, happening March 12–16, submit your idea to the organizers here.…