Gossip, Dating, Surveillance and the Apps that Fuse Them Together Art by Jordan Baker In our current cultural and technological epoch where matters of the heart are administered, governed, and corroded by the screen, it feels almost natural that someone would use those same digital means to attempt to mediate the dangers inherent to such a digitized experience of love. The Tea app was created in 2023 by Sean Cook, a white man with a Business degree from UConn. The Tea app – officially Tea...

February 16, 2026 Newsletter If you’ve taken the train at least once in the past two months, chances are you’ve seen a particular ad glued to the walls: plain white background, Times New Roman font, and an air of mystery. The actual product being advertised is not easily deciphered. Although you may be thinking of the infamous Friend.com campaign that inundated quite literally every blank surface of the MTA for the last four months of 2025, I am talking about Meeno.com’s “Rejection is hot”,...

December 9, 2026 Newsletter Spotify Wrapped 2025 It was in 2015 that Spotify users were first subjected to the digital summary of their year’s listening habits now known as Spotify Wrapped. Since then, Spotify Wrapped has marketed itself into a semi-global cultural event, dissected in the Op-ed section of the New York Times, advertised on the Paris metro, and endlessly re-posted on social media. This year, I even heard someone refer to the planned release date of Spotify Wrapped 2025 as...