March: Best of the Internet
I just got off a flight to Syracuse for the weekend, and had the distinct pleasure of sitting among a few strangers who instantly became like family when we discovered we’re all Tar Heels. Let me tell y’all, nothing beats the immediate comfort of people who would spend their last moments on earth pledging allegiance to the University of North Carolina, whose death row meal would be a Blue Cup and a chicken biscuit from Time Out, who can tell you exactly where they were when Luke Maye made that buzzer beater.
As we chatted about our collective anxieties regarding a possible championship match-up with that measly college in Durham, I couldn’t help but recall this column from Adam Lucas about the culture of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team. Not to be dramatic, but I would die for this team.
So, as you gear up for the rest of these digital golden nuggets, know that nothing comes close to the time you’ll spend cheering for the Heels. Now for your regularly-scheduled programming:
READ
This is your brain on glitter. A clinical psychologist wrote this NYT to challenge our response to teenage angst. Think of your brain like a snow globe full of glitter, she says. “Emotions almost always rise, swirl and settle all by themselves.” Something tells me this applies to more than just teens.
4 minute read. Newspaper articles used to be measured in inches, but digital reads are now quantified by pockets of time. Why are we so obsessed with tracking how much time we spent on things? What if we started reading a column, not knowing how long it might take us to get through the whole story?
The hottest new texting app is…GoogleDocs? I know approximately one (1) teenager, and, though I can’t confirm whether this article reflects the trending habits of teenagers, I can testify that teenagers are so much smarter than we give them credit for, and they’ll continue to innovate communication with our without us.
Psychology and the Good Life. Yale’s Happiness Class is finally on the internet (for free!!). If your Aunt Becky didn’t pay your way into an Ivy League school, fear not! You can still take Yale’s virally-discussed course. My personal favorite item in the curriculum is time affluence: what would you do if you had more time? And how do you choose activities that actually make you happier?
LISTEN
Sweet, Thanks. It’s week 8 of Ariana Grande’s record-breaking, chart-topping single 7 rings, so naturally Billboard tried to reimagine her most recent discography if it was only comprised of her deep tracks.
Cold (Before I Met You). A friend of a friend’s Spotify debut that I can’t get out of my head — for good reason.
The EcoChic Podcast. Laura Diez answers your burning questions about incorporating sustainability into your every day life. The zero-waste life sounds great, but, it’s super intimidating, time consuming and often cost-ineffective. We can’t rely on a few people living perfectly zero-waste. What we need is a bunch of people trying, imperfectly, to care for the planet. Follow her Instagram here.
WATCH
Lizzo wants fans to love themselves just as much as they love her. No wonder her entire tour sold out in a matter of minutes.
Aidy Bryant has been working two jobs, six days a week for the past year. Here’s how she pulled off her new Hulu original, Shrill.
Rob Delaney still wants to make you laugh.
Work-Centric
Extremely sad desk lunches to be thankful you're not eating.
The Gospel of Work. Millennials are getting burnt out from pursuing careers that align with their passions, essentially draining the creativity and excitement that boomers reserved for their hobbies. “There is no question that an elite obsession with meaningful work will produce a handful of winners who hit the workist lottery: busy, rich, and deeply fulfilled. But a culture that funnels its dreams of self-actualization into salaried jobs is setting itself up for collective anxiety, mass disappointment, and inevitable burnout.” TL;DR: you don’t have to make your career your calling. The pressure to “love what you do” just reinforces the idea of a wasted life if you’re job isn’t also your soul mate. There are other ways to find happiness.
The Eight-Hour work day is a farce. Trying to do one thing for eight hours isn’t a meaningful way to progress through your daily tasks: it leads to distraction, fatigue and less attention to detail. Science tells us that a 15-minute break every hour is the prime time grind time.
The Secret Lives of Facebook Moderators. (Content warning: graphic descriptions of mental health, racism, assault) Facebook isn’t moderating your content, regular people are — and they’re being wildly underpaid and over-exposed to traumatic content.
2020 Thingz
A lot of people are running for the Democratic nomination and, instead of endorsing any of them to my mom’s friends who read this blog (hi!), I’ll share the most meaningful and illuminating opinion pieces I’ve ravaged as a result of my addiction to the news:
The Privilege of Being Beto. How would our reception of O’Rourke’s candidacy change if he were a woman, and why does that matter?
Elizabeth Warren runs through Penn Station just like the rest of us.